Bruce Cumings is basically saying nothing is going to change in North Korea, regime wise, but he's saying it very well. He also captures an intensely self-referential approach to court life under the Kim dynasty, as well as suggesting that KJU is being lined up as a kind of re-incarnation of Kim Il-sung:
Most interesting, though, was Jong-un’s body language: tall, hefty, grinning, he already looked like a politician, at home with his sudden role as “beloved successor”. Gone was the dour, dyspeptic, cynical, ill-at-ease Kim Jong-il, swaddled in a puffy ski jacket, his face hidden behind sunglasses. Jong-un, in looks and style, is the spitting image of his grandfather when he came to power in the late 1940s; he even shaves his sideburns up high (the documentary showed photos of Kim Il-sung with the same haircut). It was as if his DNA had passed uncontaminated to the grandson (as no doubt the regime wants its people to believe).
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