I wonder when all but three on the front row realized they were not clapping in perfect unison with the Young General.
Vague reports from the Hermit Kingdom, as the Daily NK relays details from the KCNA of the sudden and very public dismissal of Ju Sang-song (also transliterated as Chu Sang-se’ong)as Gangmaster-in-Chief Director of the Public Safety Agency.
Claims that he has stood-down due to illness ring as true as the reasons for the sudden withdrawing of candidates from the Dunny-on-the-Wold By-Election as usually top DPRK officials stay in position for life. Furthermore, as recently as six weeks ago, Ju was reported to have been present when Meng Jiangzhu paid a formal visit to Pyongyang.
The PSA is responsible for what is coquettishly termed domestic law enforcement, and North Korean Economy Watch carries an article by Joseph Bermudez about ongoing restructuring of it and other agencies. Always a badly behaved brat (albeit with nuclear weapons), the DPRK has been particularly provocative towards the RoK of late with, despite what John “the Mad” Pilger may believe, the March 2010 sinking of the Cheonan , a naval corvette; death-squads sent against defectors in RoK, including Hwang Jang-yop; and the December 2010 shelling of the island of Yeon Pyeong-do.
Separately, the PSA has notably failed to prevent isolated cases of public protest, and a pitched battle is reported to have taken place in North Hamgyong Province between its members and nearby border guards in a dispute as to who took custody of three captured Chinese smugglers.
If Kim Jong-eun, or any family members and military officers vying for power as Kim Jong-il shuffles towards mortal death and apotheosis had taken a dislike to Ju, this would be as good an excuse as any to dispose of him.