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Perhaps some good news from NORTH K.; From www.captainsquartersblog.com
Topic Started: Nov 25 2004, 01:40 PM (869 Views)
Seoul Survivor
Thanks Jay!
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November 24, 2004
North Korea Sending Signals That Something Big Has Changed

Two wire service reports indicate that North Korea has made major changes in its normally fanatical approach to its sovereignty and security. Reuters informs its readers that the hermit nation has suddenly developed a sense of urgency about restarting the six-nation talks that Kim Jong-Il previously joined with great reluctance:

North Korea wants urgently to restart six-party talks on its nuclear programs but is still demanding of its certain conditions be met, a top U.N. official told South Korea's Yonhap news agency on Thursday.

North Korea still agreed with the format of the talks, it quoted Jean Ping, president of the U.N. General Assembly, as saying. Officials told him during a visit that Pyongyang was committed to denuclearizing the Korean peninsula, it said.

"North Korea not only agreed to the format of the talks but also believes that the talks should restart urgently," Ping was quoted as saying.

North Korea has hardly been a fan of the multilateral negotiations in the past. Their haste to return to the table sounds like someone else may be making the decisions now, an impression that only gains currency with this report from the French news agency AFP. Not only have Kim's pictures been removed from public places in Pyongyang, they've also been pulled from the lapels of traveling Northerners:

South Korea's Unification Ministry confirmed that lapel badges of Kim are no longer being worn by North Koreans travelling from the Stalinist state to China on official business.

In the past, they wore either a badge portraying Kim or a similar badge portraying his father, the Stalinist state's founder Kim Il-Sung who died in 1994.

"North Koreans travelling to and from China who formerly wore the badge of either Kim Il-Sung or Kim Jong-Il on their chests, have stopped wearing the Kim Jong-Il badge," Unification Ministry spokeswoman Yang Jong-Hwa told AFP, citing an internal report from the ministry's information analysis bureau.

The official party line has Kim issuing orders to put an end to the personality cult he transferred from his father to himself after assuming power. Up to now, the only indication of regime change has been the removal of Kim's pictures, and the official explanation at least sounded plausible. Now that their foreign policy has apparently evolved, the rumors of Kim's demise start taking on a bit more credibility. The Reuters article discusses the latest of them:

Rumors circulated in currency and stock markets in Seoul and Tokyo early on Thursday that Kim had been shot dead.

"There have been various rumors about North Korea and some do have an impact on the market, but this time there's no reaction," said a foreign exchange dealer at a bank in Seoul.

Something has changed up there. Maybe Kim just decided to get humble after Bush's re-election, but with the nation starving to death and their neighbors aligning themselves with the US on their nuclear ambitions, one or more of the palace guard may have decided that their Nero needed to go.
#AMR#
//Seoul
Comments:
This can be a very good sign. If this is truly the passing of Kim jung-il, a new leader may not be so heavily oposed to the reunification of the north and south, which would be a very good thing for both sides. It could also signal the ending of the nuclear threat from the north.
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Angel
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C_Beyond ((chunsa oppa))
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*crosses fingers*

whatever happens with kim jung il, if there is a peaceful end to all this, it will be truly good news....

with kim jung il out of the picture, there is at least a chance for a peaceful settlement...but...i just have a bad feeling about this...this guy is no good...and it may be a cover-up for something bad thats goin down in NK. right now, there are no certain facts (well, as of 11/24), so we dont know anything for sure...but hope must be kept alive...
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Seoul Survivor
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I've been following this closely, Angelo. And I've heard NOTHING more. I suppose I should listen to Radio Pyongyang, but it is such a ghastly station, when it does make it to the states... We can only hope.
Ending this Kim regime, would not only help reunite many South Koreans with their families in the north, it would almost certainly make the 22 million N Korean's lives a LOT better. North Korea is more "Mainland China-ish" than is Mainland China. We can only hope. But be sure to stay tuned to the KMR. I'll keep you up to date!

//Seoul
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