A lot of history documentaries and commentaries discuss how the Soviet Union rolled into Korea after World War 2. One of the questions I asked myself today was, what made them decide to occupy Korea in the first place?
From Dae Sook Suh’s fantastic book on Kim Il Sung, the partisan activities of the anti-Japanese guerrilla fighting days is fundamental in …

Something is not right here, and something odd is going on in North Korea. Yes, even by their extremely odd standards to begin with. It appears North Korea is in a very serious cash crunch, and this makes sense from the sanctions imposed from the tests conducted last year. What is not making sense, and may never get an answer …

See part 4
The usual disclaimers apply to this post like all the other postings.
In the last posting, I made a feeble attempt at trying to imagine bottom-up dissent and the problems that it could cause for Kim Jong Il if he were alive. All along, I have been doing possibilities in the event something goes wrong if he were alive. …

(Hat tip: Hapo) The speech at the Hamhung factory. You can see more information at One Free Korea. Enjoy!

I have written about this oddity in the past, and since that time, found a lot more information. I am sure more will crop up, but I believe this should be alright.
In 2005, the Casino was shut down, and I have not seen a word on it since. Apparently, it is just sitting there, but who knows what it is …

China gets Rajin port for ten years – Rajin, the struggling special economic zone that has not seen a whole lot of activity, has been trying to restart it for quite some time. Some other special economic zones may make a little more economic sense in the way of location have been set up, but in my opinion, the regime …

See part 3
In the last part of this series, I really jumped off the cliff in the speculation game. Chances are, I will probably look at this later and shake my head wondering why I wrote such a thing. Therefore, the usual disclaimers apply to this posting, as well as all the other postings.
How would Kim Jong Il react to …

Yes kids, it is must read material time again, and NKEconWatch delivers. Andrei Lankov wrote a piece in Asian Times about the current happenings in North Korea. Now as all North Korea watchers I know, know, Lankov is one of the few North Korea watchers who can be called the closest to an expert one can get. This goes along …

I guess it is a good time to take a break on the wild speculation and try my hand at another oddity. This time, it is yet more speculation, because I have been having a rough time trying to find some of the places in this particular oddity that happens to be an area in Pyongyang. This is the so-called …