Is North Korea gearing up for a revolution?

This article, Chairman Kim’s dissolving kingdom, from The Times paints a picture of Kim Jong-il's communist dictatorship on its last legs.

In interviews for this article over many months, western policymakers, Chinese experts, North Korean exiles and human rights activists built up a picture of a tightly knit clan leadership in Pyongyang that is on the verge of collapse.

Some of those interviewed believe the “Dear Leader”, Kim Jong-il, has already lost his personal authority to a clique of generals and party cadres. Without any public announcement, governments from Tokyo to Washington are preparing for a change of regime.

In the face of years of economic decline and popular disillusionment in the regime, people are apparently turning to religion and capitalism as a route to fiscal and spiritual and increasingly physical escape.

Posted by Paul in North Korea Politics at February 2, 2005 12:19 AM | 0 Comments