Collector’s Items: Kimjongilia on Display in Shenyang

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The dear leader who will forever be remembered for replacing nuclar wars with intelligent technology (click picture).

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1) Voice of Korea, German Service, February 9, 2012

On the Day of the Shining Star – the birthday of Kim Jong-il -, the General Association of Koreans in China held a Kim-Jong-ilia exhibition in the Chinese city of Shenyang on February 4. The General Association of Koreans in China chairwoman Choe Un Bok and her coworkers, the Korean compatriots in China, the Consul-General of the DPRK in Shenyang and his co-workers, the members of the branches of Korean companies in Shenyang as well as cadres of Chinese Liaoning Province took part in the exhibition. The participants abided silent commemoration of Kim Jong-il.

Zum Tag des Leuchtenden Sterns – Geburtstag von Kim Jong-il – veranstaltete der Generalverband der Koreaner in China am 4. Februar in der chinesischen Stadt Shenyang eine Kim-Jongilia-Ausstellung. Die Vorsitzende des Generalverbandes der Koreaner in China, Choe Un Bok, und ihre Mitarbeiter, die koreanischen Landsleute in China, der Generalkonsul der DVRK in Shenyang und seine Mitarbeiter, die Angehörigen der Filialen der koreanischen Firmen in Shenyang sowie die Funktionäre der chinesischen Provinz Liaoning nahmen an der Ausstellung teil. Die Teilnehmer verharrten in schweigendem Gedenken an Kim Jong-il.

The speakers emphasized that the merits of Kim Jong-il, who had made a great contribution to deepening and developing [DVJK]-Chinese friendship, would live forever. They emphasized that the Kim-Jongilia, the flower for the praise of Kim Jong-il, would bloom forever in full blossom as a world-famous flower in the hearts of progressive people of the world and among the Korean compatriots in China.

Die Redner hoben hervor, die Verdienste Kim Jong-ils, der durch die energische auswärtige Tätigkeit einen großen Beitrag zur Vertiefung und Entwicklung der DVJK-China-Freundschaft geleistet habe, werden ewig fortleben. Sie betonten, Kim-Jongilia, Blume zur Lobpreisung Kim Jong-ils, werde als weltbekannte und als berühmte Blume in den Herzen der fortschrittlichen Menschen der Welt und der koreanischen Landsleute in China ewig in voller Blüte stehen.

Voice of Korea (Stimme Koreas), 09.02.2013

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2) KCNA: Kimjongilia Show Held in Shenyang

Pyongyang, February 8 (KCNA) – A Kimjongilia show for celebrating the birth anniversary of leader Kim Jong Il (the Day of the Shining Star) was held in Shenyang, China on Feb. 4 under the sponsorship of the General Association of Koreans in China.

Present there were officials of the General Association of Koreans in China including Chairwoman Choe Un Bok, Koreans in China, the consul general and members of the DPRK consulate-general in Shenyang and officials of Liaoning Province, China.

Speeches were made at the show.

The speakers said that immortal are the feats of Kim Jong Il, who made great contributions to strengthening the DPRK-China friendship with his energetic foreign activities.

Kimjongilia, flower praising the great man, will shine as the famous flower in the world and bloom in the minds of world progressives and Koreans in China, they noted.

They expressed belief that the Korean people will achieve greater success in the building of a thriving nation under the leadership of the dear respected Marshal Kim Jong Un this year.

Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), February 8, 2013

An informal Chinese translation (or re-publication) of a KCNA news article:

朝中社平壤２月８日电 旅华朝鲜人总联合会４日在中国沈阳举办庆祝金正日总书记诞辰日（光明星节）金正日花展。
议长崔银福等旅华朝鲜人总联合会成员、旅华朝侨、朝鲜驻沈阳总领事和总领馆人员、朝鲜驻沈阳各办事处人员以及中国辽宁省官员参观了花展。
参观者首先悼念金正日，肃立默哀。
展览上多位人士先后发言。
各位发言者说，金正日以精力充沛的对外活动为加强和发展朝中友谊做出了巨大的贡献，这一丰功伟绩将永垂不朽。伟人之花将作为世界名花、花中名花放射光辉，永远盛开在世界进步人民和旅华朝鲜人心中。
他们强调，深信朝鲜人民今年将在敬爱的金正恩元帅领导下，在强盛国家建设中取得更大成就。（完）

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3) China News Service, February 8, 2013: Three Postal Stamps

North Korea issues postal stamps to commemorate Kim Jong-il’s birthday on the “Day of the Shining Star”.  This picture shows Kim Jong-il at his time as a student at Kim Il-sung University. According to KCNA on February 7, the North Korean Postal Stamps Publishing Office published new stamps to celebrate the “Day of the Shining Star”, Kim Jong-il’s birthday. They include two small and two individual stamps.

[...]

朝鲜发行邮票纪念金正日诞辰日“光明星节”。图为金日成综合大学时期的金正日。 据朝中社7日报道，为庆祝朝鲜已故领导人金正日的诞辰日“光明星节”，朝鲜国家邮票发行局推出了新邮票，包括2枚小型张和2枚个别邮票。 [.....]

China News Service, February 8, 2013

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Shortwave Log, Northern Germany, August 2012

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Voice of Korea

The Voice of Korea (VoK), previously known as Radio Pyongyang, is the international broadcasting service of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. When I listened to the station in the 1980s, you got the national anthem at the beginning, and following that, some frequency announcements and the news. Since then, two not-so-collective leaderships, i. e. Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il, have died, and all VoK programs begin with the national anthem, a song for Kim Il-sung, and another for Kim Jong-il (both military marches). But there’s still space for the news, readings from the works of Kim Il-sung, and a mixture of military marches and folk music (the latter of which is occasionally quite nice, but more frequently kitsch, sometimes with apparent Swiss characteristics).

Radio Pyongyang – renamed Voice of Korea since -, QSL card, 1989.

There is currently no interference on 13760 kHz at 13:00 GMT (click here, or picture above, for a digital recording), but the Chinese program, although more silently than the scheduled English program, can be heard in the background, too. It is probably on the same feeder between the studios and the shortwave transmitters.

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Recent Logs

Thanks to long vacations, it’s a pretty big list for August.

International Telecommunication Union letter codes used in the table underneath:
AFS – South Africa; AIA – Anguilla; ARG – Argentina; ASC – Ascension Island; CHN – China; CLN – Sri Lanka; CUB – Cuba; IND – India; IRN – Iran; ISR – Israel; KRE – North Korea; MNG – Mongolia; PAK – Pakistan; RRW – Rwanda; RUS – Russia; SYR – Syria; THA – Thailand; TIB – Tibet; UAE – United Arab Emirates.

Languages (“L.”):
C – Chinese; E – English; Fa – Farsi; G – German; H – Hebrew; K – Korean; Pa – Pashto; Th – Thai; R – Russian; T – Tibetan.

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kHz	Station	Ctry	L.	Day	Time GMT	S	I	O
5960	PBS Xinjiang	CHN	C	Aug 2	23:00	3	4	3
7240	PBS Tibet	TIB	C	Aug 2	23:13	3	4	3
9330	Radio Damascus	SYR	G	Aug 3	18:00	2	3	2
15700	Voice of Russia	RUS	G	Aug 4	09:30	4	5	4
9430	China Radio International	CHN	C	Aug 4	14:21	4	5	4
6000	RHC Habana	CUB	E	Aug 5	03:00	3	3	3
6090	Caribbean Beacon	AIA	E	Aug 8	00:41	4	5	3
11540	VoA Radio Deewa	CLN	Pa	Aug 8	01:36	3	5	3
15850	Galei Zahal	ISR	H	Aug 8	02:55	3	5	2
6973	Galei Zahal	ISR	H	Aug 8	03:05	3	3	3
13850	KOL Israel	ISR	Fa	Aug 8	13:59	4	4	4
15760	KOL Israel	ISR	Fa	Aug 8	14:35	4	4	4
4920	Tibetan Radio1)	TIB	T	Aug 8	21:58	4	4	4
4800	CNR	CHN	C	Aug 8	22:28	3	4	3
15235	Channel Africa	AFS	E	Aug 9	17:00	3	4	3
11290	Royal Air Force Volmet2)	ASC	E	Aug 9	19:18	4	4	4
9490	Deutsche Welle Kigali	RRW	E	Aug 9	20:27	4	4	4
12010	Voice of Russia	RUS	G	Aug 11	15:55	4	3	3
9855	Radio Australia	UAE	E	Aug 12	23:20	3	4	3
17895	All India Radio	IND	E	Aug 13	10:00	3	4	3
15180	Vo Korea	KRE	E	Aug 14	10:00	3	4	3
17820	Radio Thailand	THA	Th	Aug 14	10:31	4	5	4
15275	Radio Pakistan3)	PAK	E	Aug 14	11:00	?	?	?
9805	CNR	CHN	C	Aug 14	23:00	4	5	4
11710	CNR	CHN	C	Aug 14	23:05	4	5	4
9325	Vo Korea	KRE	K	Aug 15	20:01	4	5	4
15345	RAE Buenos Aires	ARG	G	Aug 15	20:55	4	3	3
9680	Radio Thailand4)	THA	G	Aug 20	20:00	4	4	5
21590	IRIB Tehran 5)	IRN	E	Aug 21	10:28	4	5	3
12085	Vo Mongolia	MGL	C	Aug 23	10:00	2	4	2
9330	Radio Damascus 6)	SYR	R	Aug 23	17:24	3	5	3

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Notes

¹⁾ SIO 444 on parallel frequency 4905 kHz
²⁾ probably Ascension Island
³⁾ SIO = 3, but modulation as bad as usual.
⁴⁾ Interference from 9675 kHz, probably Radio Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), Turkish-language program.
⁵⁾ SIO 454 on parallel frequency 21640 kHz
⁶⁾ Modulation as bad as usual, but the better reception than later in the evening (as usual in August).

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Related

» Previous Logs, August 2, 2012

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Doing Business with North Korea

The following are excerpts from an unverified account by a Chinese national who manages (or more probably managed, in the past) food business with North Korean agencies. It doesn’t seem to be a very recent one and was probably written years ago, but the way it got into the forum where I read it more recently seems to suggest that it was originally only accessible on another website, and only by password. I therefore left most names and other circumstantial descriptions out.

I guess that this was written during the North Korean famine, i. e. during the 1990s.

I’ll provide the link to those readers of this blog who I seem to know well, be it from the blogosphere or from the real world, under the condition that the link remains between us (unless you convince me that there is no need for this kind of caution).

Sino-North Korean relations appear to be uneasy on the official level. The following excerpts from the – unverified, see above – account of personal experience seems to suggest that things aren’t any easier on the level of everyday routine and cross-border contacts.

So, every time I’m doing transports [into North Korea], I will bring some boxes of bread and biscuits, and before unloading, first give these to the women who do the work, so that they can eat their fill first. But they don’t eat; they put the bread into their clothes to take it home for their children. The bad thing is that the officials in charge there frequently search them, and then use the bread by themselves, or to allocate it in their own ways. When I became aware of that, I was really angry. These trade organization bosses are rich. We do business with them, give them many presents, and they get sales commission for every transaction, paid in U.S. dollars. But still, they won’t let the women off with the bread. Next time, I will have to bring more boxes of food, to give some to the bosses first, and to the women next, and then I’ll make sure that they eat first. After work, I will give them more boxes to take them home to their children. In the past, I suffered from hunger myself. I know how it feels. Although I will have to spend a few hundred yuan more each time [to buy food for the North Korean women], it will make me feel better.

The women in North Korea do heavy manual labor at work, and the chores at home. A man sees it as a joke that he should do chores. They do nothing once they are at home. Women carry their child on their back when they are cooking, or doing the laundry. Once the dishes are ready, she has to serve the men and children first, and may have some food next to the stove. Thousands of years of tradition have led to a situation where these women work without complaining. They never quarreled with their fate which is so unfair to them. Every day, they do their hard work.

[...]

On leaving a restaurant, the author sees a middle-aged man clutching food residues out of a gutter.

I went back inside [the restaurant] and got him two mantou. He took them with both hands [an expression of politeness, not of hastiness] and cried as he expressed his thanks. He walked backwards several meters, bowing towards me, then turned away and left. As I watched him walking away, my eyes were also full of tears.

[...]

Despite the hardhips, North Koreans don’t blame the government. They say that American imperialism is responsible. It’s the American blockade, they create these difficulties. The common people in North Korea know nothing about the outside world. They can only listen to their own broadcasting stations, and watch North Korean television. Once, in a conversation with an old man, I said that you live like this, and he said, our lives are just as in paradise, it’s all given to us by our kind fatherly leader… [...]

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Related

» Nightmare Investment, Sino-NK, Aug 15, 2012

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Ri Yong-ho’s Removal: too Early to Declare Victory

North Korean military chief, Central Military Commission (CMC) vice-chairman and Worker’s Party Politbureau Presidium member Ri Yong-ho has been removed from all official posts “because of illness”, the BBC quotes North Korean media. A spokesman for the South Korean Unification Ministry called the move “very unusual”.

The CMC chairmanship has been held by Kim Jong-un since April 2012. Kim became North Korea’s supreme leader after his father’s death in December 2011.

An Associated-Press article interprets Ri’s removal as a step taken by Kim Jong-un. The article also emphasizes Kim Jong Un’s drive to build up the nation’s economy. The article also points out that Kim Jong-un’s father, Kim Jong-il, ruled under a “military first” policy.

Singapore’s Morning News (Lianhe Zaobao):

[North Korea's] KCNA reported on July 16 that North Korean Workers Party Central Committee’s Politbureau held a meeting on July 15 and decided to relieve permanent Politbureau member and Chief of General Staff Ri Yong-ho [Chinese: Li Yinghao, 李英浩] of all his duties. According to reports, the meeting decided to relieve him of all duties, including his permanent Politbureau membership, Politbureau membership, and CMC vice-chairmanship, because of “suffering from illness”.
朝鲜中央通讯社16日报道，朝鲜劳动党中央委员会15日举行政治局会议，决定解除政治局常务委员兼朝鲜人民军总参谋长李英浩的所有职务。据报道，因李英浩“患有疾病”，会议决定解除他担任的所有职务，包括朝鲜劳动党中央委员会政治局常务委员会委员、政治局委员、朝鲜劳动党中央军事委员会副委员长等。

Chinese media reported Ri’s removal right away, but while Singapore’s Morning News quotes assumptions from South Korean institutions that the move may have been made for political reasons, China’s Xinhua News Agency simply quotes KCNA itself.

Huanqiu Shibao offers no interpretation beyond KCNA’s “health” explanations either, but adds a KCNA snapshot to spice things up a bit. Via an emoticon board, 311 readers (at the time of writing this post) express amazement or shock (震惊), 71 are bored, and 45 find the news ridiculous. But in the commenter thread, “linqinghu” finds the news very Chinese, very familiar (很中国，很熟悉), and “Xiaoyao Guoke” has a question: Whenever news about North Korea is reported, it’s is it always KCNA? Hard to believe that Xinhua has no reporters there!!?? (有一个问题搞不懂：但凡报道朝鲜的新闻，为什么总听韩联社的！？难道新华社在朝鲜就没有记者吗). There appears to be at least one reporter from Huanqiu Shibao itself in Pyongyang, actually.

Interpretation of the currently meager news is likely to follow in mainland Chinese media soon, and Beijing, if not informed about the backgrounds, will hope that the North Korean leadership’s economic priorities as alluded to by Associated Press (see above, third paragraph) will turn out to be the true driving motivation behind Ri Yong-ho’s removal.

Or, as Adam Cathcart interpreted some outspoken Chinese press coverage – as a message to then Kim Jong-il’s officialdom, in December 2010: just stop the nonsense and make some money (i. e., care about the economy). “Nonsense”, back then, wouldn’t refer directly to Kim Jong-il’s military-first policies, but to stand-offs with South Korea.

China’s propaganda department may find it a bit too early to declare victory on North Korea’s economic front just yet.

A source to watch this week should be Sino-NK, a website dedicated to background information (plus some gossip) on North Korean politics, and on North-Korean and Chinese interaction.

Update: Chasing the General Ri, SinoNK, July 19, 2012

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Updates/Related

» Very Mysterious, but…, WSJ, July 17, 2012

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Chinese coverage on Kim Jong-il’s Death

A cobbler should stick to his last, they say. This blog may be no shining example for this motto, but Kim Jong-il‘s death, plus speculation, is extensively reported everywhere, and I don’t believe that I can add a lot of meaningful information here.

But to commemorate the old gangsta, who reportedly presided over the death of some two million people soon after succeeding his holy father in 1994 (due to ill-judged economic reforms and poor harvests), here is a historical icon:

Another boring Day at the Supreme Commander’s Office

Let’s hope that he won’t soon be missed for his, umm, restraint.

From Sichuan Province, China, Adam Cathcart is logging Chinese coverage on Kim’s death, plus updates, in this (probably only initial) blogpost.

The tag to follow there should be North Korea.

For some more folksy reactions in China, there’s a random collection on Sinostand.

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Updates

» Voice of Korea, JR’s Soundfiles, recorded Dec 19, 2011
[Update, Dec 23, 2012: soundfile now removed. Please contact me by email or comment if you are interested in the soundfile - JR
Former link: soundcloud.com/jr_s-soundfiles/voice-of-korea-kim-jong-il]

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Revolutionary: Voice of Korea opens Website

[Link in Question: http://www.vok.rep.kp/CBC/]

nannynews / JIU

The Voice of Korea [VOK] will open its Internet homepage. The VOK will open its Internet homepage.

Dear audience,
The VOK will newly open its Internet homepage from Sun’s Day on 15 April, the birth anniversary of great leader [suryo'ng] President Kim Il Sung [Kim Il-so'ng]. The Internet homepage address can be located at http://www.vok.rep.kp.

We notify you that the VOK will newly open its Internet homepage from Sun’s Day on 15 April, the birth anniversary of great leader President Kim Il Sung. The Internet homepage address can be located at http://www.vok.rep.kp.

The VOK’s Internet homepage, to be launched anew, will further strengthen relations with the audience.

Central Broadcasting Station, Pyongyang, in Korean 2100 gmt 12 Apr 11 via BBC Monitoring),

via Shortwave Central.

Article seeks Author

This article, if correctly attributed to Liu Xiaobo, could be relevant in discussions about this year’s Nobel Peace Prize award.

According to China Elections, it first appeared on a New Century website (新世纪网) on November 2, 2004, and discusses the role the Iraq war played during the presidential election campaigns and debates in 2004. It basically sets out from the post-cold war period and its promises of democracy and freedom, and rates the 9-11 attacks as a threat to these promises.

Excerpts¹⁾ :

[...]

Bush, as all responsible Western leaders, saw the promotion of “freedom and democracy” as an important part of the “national interest”, and the removal of Saddam Hussein’s vicious government as a major measure for spreading freedom and democracy, and to safeguard world peace. Because “feedom and democracy” are universal values, all people worldwide, regardless of race, culture, nationality, religion and other differences, are entitled to a free life and and to democratic institutions.  Therefore, as he is seeking reelection, Bush insists that overthrowing Saddam Hussein was the right choice. Even if no weapons of mass destruction had been found, eradicating Saddam Hussein’s tyranny and establishing a free Iraq, thus promoting freedom and democracy in the whole Middle East, constituted sufficient reasons to overthrow Saddam Hussein.
布什象所有负责任的西方大国领袖一样，把向世界推广“自由民主”视为“国家利益”的重要组成部分，把铲除邪恶政权视为推广自由民主和维护世界和平的主要手段。因为，“自由民主”具有普世价值，世界上所有的人——不分种族、文化、国别、宗教等的差异——皆有资格享受自由生活和民主制度。所以，谋求连任的布什坚持倒萨之战乃正确的选择，即便没有找到大规模武器，铲除萨达姆暴政和建立自由伊拉克，进而在整个中东地区推动自由民主，便足以作为倒萨之战的理由。

Kerry accused Bush of being arrogant and reckless for referring to “an axis of evil”, but indeed, as Reagan had referred to the USSR as an “evil empire”, Bush’s referral to Iraq, North Korea, and Iran are simply true. Saddam Hussein and Kim Jong-il are undoubtedly the world’s most evil despots. [...]
克里指责布什对“邪恶轴心”的指控是傲慢和卤莽，而在实际上，象当年的里根总统指控前苏联为“邪恶帝国”一样，布什对伊拉克、北韩和伊朗的指控，仅仅是事实陈述而已。特别是萨达姆和金正日，无疑是当今世界最为邪恶的两大暴君。

[...]

[...] Therefore, considering the atrocities terrorism committed, is commiting, and is preparing to commit, considering the difficulties in preventing terrorist attacks, considering Saddam’s bellicosity and his support for terrorism, ever seeking to acquire weapons of mass destruction, repeatedly violating the United Nations’ resolutions on weapon inspections, this intensity of wickedness isn’t smaller than bin-Laden’s. Saddam repeatedly went to war and had dictatorial powers in his country. His ability to create terrorist disaster surely exceeded bin-Laden’s and the Taliban’s by far.
所以，鉴于恐怖主义已经实施、正在实施和准备实施的反人类反文明反自由的暴行，鉴于恐怖袭击的难以防范，鉴于萨达姆的一贯好战和支持恐怖主义，一直在谋求大规模毁灭性武器，屡次违反联合国有关武器核查的决议，其邪恶程度决不次于本•拉登。萨达姆屡经战争且拥有统治一个国家的独裁权力，在制造恐怖灾难的能力上，肯定要远远超过本•拉登及塔利班。

[...]

Neither in the war on terror, nor in handling international relations, is Bush a perfect president, but after all, he has, one by one, won the war in Afghanistan by striking only after the enemy had struck (后发制人), and the Iraq war pre-emptively (先发制人). Western leftists can turn temporary setbacks into a big fuss, but as people spoke about Churchill after world war 2, and about Reagan after the cold war,will they rate Bush as “a great, intelligent strategist”.
无论是反恐之战还是处理国际关系，布什都不是一位完美的总统，但他毕竟先后赢得了后发制人的阿富汗之战和先发制人的倒萨之战。西方的左派们可以抓住暂时的挫折来大做文章，  但在历史过去多年之后，人们才会象事后谈论二战初期的邱吉尔和冷战时期的里根一样，以“具有大智慧的大战略家”来评价布什总统。

No matter how much risk it meant to overthrow Saddam, the risk of inaction would have been even greater. World war 2 and 9-11 are  proving it! Either way, it was justified to overthrow Saddam Hussein. President Bush’s decision was correct!
无论倒萨的行动要冒的多大风险，不行动的风险将更为巨大，二战和9•11就是明证！
所以，无论如何，倒萨之战是正义的！布什总统的决定是正确的！

That much translation for now. Comments both on the article itself and its authenticity are welcome. Mind the commenting rules.

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Note
¹⁾ I’m thinking about translating all of it, but only if I can get the source verified.

Related
Liu Xiaobo and the Confraternization of Nations – Comments
The Nobel War Prize, LRB Blog, December 11, 2010

Beijing-Pyongyang: Say it through the Papers

China’s mainstream media carry short reviews of the North Korean press once in a while, frequently compiled by Xinhua. The following was republished by Enorth (Tianjin) on Saturday.

[North Korean] paper Democratic Korea (民主朝鲜) says in an article that North Korea’s self-restraint and determination and love for peace averted an armed conflict on the Korean peninsula which would have triggered all-out war. North Korea’s actions received neighboring countries’ and the international communities support, and at the same time made the international community see clearly who on the Korean peninsula was the guardian of peace, and who was the real provocateur.

Labor News (劳动新闻) says in an article that the fact that the US-South Korean provocations hadn’t turned into a all-out conflict was merely the result of  North Korea’s “self-restraint and courage”, and its “determination to maintain peace”.

Another boring Day at the Supreme Commander's Office

The point about “restraint” refers to live ammunition exercises by South Korean troops on Monday, to which Pyongyang had initially threatened retaliation, but then chose to adjourn. Xinhua previously provided a North Korean press review on Tuesday, also about the current conflict and a statement that the North wouldn’t react to imperialist provocations (yet).

Adam Cathcart wondered on Monday if some of the Chinese press – which in his view is clearly more critical of Pyongyang than the China’s English-language press for foreigners’ consumption, may also aim at readers at the North Korean embassy in Beijing, i. e. if they were written for the eyes of the North Korean leadership, too.

For sure, objectives other than mere information for the general public will be ample in the Chinese press. The press may also work to make Beijing’s alliance with North Korea look more acceptible to Chinese readers. Also today, china.com (中华网) carries a short review of the Western press, citing the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times as attributing North Korean restraint to Beijing. Such reviews of the foreign press by Chinese media aren’t necessarily reliable. But quoting the WSJ and the FT sets the scene for foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu, and for quoting from her statements on a press conference on Thursday:

[...] spokeswoman Jiang Yu remained low-keyed (保持低调) vis-à-vis Western media claims about a Chinese role, saying that maintaining peace and stability on the Korean peninsula was in the interest and to the benefit of both the northern and southern sides, that it was hoped that all sides involved would keep cool minds and self-restraint, and promote the way of resumption of dialog, concerning the issues.

Classy understatement suits a relative superpower best. Which reminds me of a not so wide-spread view, according to which North Korea may really be Beijing’s mad little cop, waving around a loaded and unlocked gun, and making China look good in contrast. One probably has to turn to the Epoch Times to find that idea. The company’s barbarian, D. J. McGuire, advises his readers to fish for some more explanations for Pyongyang’s behavior.

As much as people would like to think the regime in charge of Northern Korea is a lone wolf, one is unable to control or even understand that regime is wholly dependent on the Chinese Communist Party for its survival.
Moreover, the CCP prefers its allies and satellites take full blame or credit for their antics, as it turns Beijing into the “good police state” and enables them to extract more concessions from the democratic world.

There are good reasons to doubt that China’s leaders, if there were no such North Korean regime, would tinker themselves one there. But of course, the regime in Pyongyang has its useful aspects, just as well as its downsides.

Here, too, Cathcart has a different interpretation of domestic Chinese press coverage on North Korea, and again, the target readership would be the leadership in Pyongyang: just stop the nonsense and make some money.

Meanwhile, a number of festive activities are marking the 19th anniversary of General Secretary Kim Jong Il as supreme commander of the Korean People’s Army.
And news just in: South Korea frees three Chinese fishermen.

Merry Christmas.