I suppose I should be doing something about the apparent riots in North Korea following the currency revaluation which I blogged about last year. But, Mr Trivial that I am, I’m still all agog at the revelations of Mi Hyang, formerly of Kim Jong-il’s pleasure squad:
Joo: According to a book written by former KJI’s private chef Fujimoto Kenji, at the Sinchon Guest House, KJI once made five pleasure brigade soldiers get naked and forced them to dance with other officials. Is that possible?
Mi Hyang: KJI was very conscious of the way other officials look at him. If he did, it would be unprecedented. But I can’t say it is impossible, because when he got drunk, he turned… hmm… somewhat perverted...
... When he drinks, he gets drunk just like any regular person. But he always behaved in our presence… although I remember he cried once. He never cried buckets. But he had us sing sad songs and dropped tears.
You can just imagine him, can’t you? Weeping into his XO, surrounded by bouncy naked ladies all apprehensive about what’s coming next. And here’s how the women are distributed:
There is a special unit guarding the roads. Soldiers of this unit receive many benefits. According to North Korean military regulations, a soldier must be at least 30 years old before he can get married.
However, officers of this unit (once they reach certain age) were authorized to spend a night with a woman. These women were usually those who were assigned to Section 5 just like me, but did not make it to the final selection process. So their physical appearance was quite remarkable.
These women were separately given a different education and stayed at hotels. I think they served to foreign VIPs. Those who were on stand by (because there was no guest), were available for soldiers.
Served to foreign VIPs, eh? I wonder who they are. Overall, Kim comes across as a kind of timid Caligula. Back in his day job Kim’s leading a wholesale purge of the higher ranks of the party following the failed revaluation. Meanwhile...
Discontent at a crackdown on the nascent market economy is also reaching boiling point. RFA reported that people are posting threatening letters to the homes of security cadres in Pyongsong and Nampo in South Pyongan Province or lobbing stones through their windows.
As the memory of the mass starvation in the mid-1990s returns, North Koreans are apparently becoming radicalized," said Lee Jo-won, a professor at ChungAng University. People who trusted the authorities and waited for food rations starved to death, while those who engaged in market activities survived, so they will not longer put up with crackdowns on markets as food prices soar and food rations are suspended. All security officers are said to have recently been supplied with live bullets and appear to be living in a state of siege.
It’s worth noting that RFA has predicted at least twenty of the last two serious revolts in authoritarian regimes across Asia. It’s doubtful whether a direct physical revolt would succeed. Aside from the state and party security structures, Kim has a 50,000 man private army, the Guard Command, to defend him even if the conventional armed forces rebel. The other option is to head for the borders in the hoipe that the secxurity forces there are demoralized enough to let them through. I think the thing to watch out for here are troop movements on the Chinese and South Korean sides of the border, which would indicate that the population inside the country is on the move.
Oversized armed forces dedicated to the personal well-being of the ruler have a habit of going wrong, I'd note...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Praetorian_Guard
Posted by: Richard J | February 05, 2010 at 03:32 PM