Kim Jong Un Purges Wealthy Elite and Opponents of Outreach to U.S. - WSJ
Kim Jong Un Purges Wealthy Elite and Opponents of Outreach to U.S.
Some 50 to 70 people exiled, jailed or executed as leader looks to silence critics and target moneyed elite with asset seizures, says report
Kim Jong Un in a photo issued for his Jan. 1 speech. PHOTO: KCNA/KNS/ASSOCIATED PRESS
273 COMMENTS
By
Andrew Jeong and
Timothy W. Martin
Updated Feb. 19, 2019 1:00 p.m. ET
SEOUL—North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has exiled, imprisoned or executed suspected opponents of his diplomatic outreach to the U.S. and South Korea, while also targeting his country’s moneyed elite with asset seizures, according to a new report that details a purge of some 50 to 70 individuals.
The crackdown, portrayed as an anticorruption campaign in state-run media, suggests Mr. Kim is looking to silence critics and shore up his regime’s finances in the face of international sanctions, said U.S. security analysts and former South Korean intelligence officials.
Economic sanctions have pinched Pyongyang’s traditional sources of foreign currency, from exports to its access to the global banking system, and the confiscations represent a way for the regime to replenish much-needed funds.
The purge takes aim at officials who have used their powerful positions to amass wealth illicitly—albeit on a North Korean scale, according to analysts and the report from the North Korea Strategy Center, a Seoul-based think tank founded by a North Korean defector. The report’s findings are based on interviews with 20 current and former high-ranking members of the Kim regime.
In a widely watched Jan. 1 speech, Mr. Kim publicly declared a war against corruption—a rare statement by any North Korean leader, according to former South Korean intelligence officials.
Scorched Earth
The Kim regime has purged numerous elites over the years in an effort to maintain absolute control.
Estimated purges
250 people
KIM JONG UN REGIME
200
Estimated range
Known
150
100
50
0
2010
’14
’15
’11
’13
’17
’18
’12
’16
Source: North Korea Strategy Center
Party and government organs “should intensify the struggle to eradicate both serious and trivial instances of abuse of power, bureaucratism and corruption, which would wreak havoc…and undermine the socialist system,” Mr. Kim said.
The remarks came after senior officials of the North Korean Guard Command—responsible for the personal security of the Kim family—were purged late last year when the regime accused them of managing a slush fund valued at tens of thousands of dollars, according to authors of the North Korea Strategy Center report.
The Wall Street Journal couldn’t independently confirm specifics of the purge, although South Korean analysts expressed confidence in the authors’ findings about Mr. Kim’s new crackdown.
The sweep, which took off late last year, seeks mainly to confiscate foreign-cash piles amassed by the North Korean establishment, and is thought to have netted the regime as much as several million dollars, the authors of the North Korea Strategy Center report said. The authors said they interviewed 14 former North Korean officials, six current officials and five additional North Koreans now residing outside the North for their report.
“Many of these purges are related to money,” said Kim Jung-bong, a former South Korean intelligence official.
Although the North Korean leader has condoned some degree of corruption to satisfy loyalists for the sake of regime stability, sanctions appear to have altered his thinking: Pyongyang now views graft money as wealth taken from increasingly cash-strapped government coffers, the former official said.
The crackdown differs from previous ones directed by Pyongyang because it appears aimed at offenses involving unremarkable, if not broadly practiced, types of bribery, said the U.S. and South Korean security analysts.
Mr. Kim is thought to have purged around 400 individuals among the Pyongyang establishment since taking over from his father in late 2011, according to the authors, with a campaign against his influential uncle in 2013 accounting for about half that figure.
What to Expect From the Second Trump-Kim Summit
The stakes are higher for President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to agree on specifics to move forward stalled denuclearization talks during their planned summit in Vietnam at the end of February, analysts say, but no major breakthroughs are expected. Photo: Associated Press
Researchers of the Kim regime don’t see the latest crackdown as evidence that Pyongyang is in political disarray, describing Mr. Kim’s grip as firm. But in the near term, Mr. Kim needs foreign cash as international sanctions block much of the country’s potential trade. In anticipation of eventual sanctions relief, and having publicly stressed the need to develop his economy, Mr. Kim wants to clean up rampant graft to ensure economic projects aren’t undone by corruption, these people said.
The developments come as Mr. Kim prepares to meet President Trump for denuclearization talks in Hanoi next week, when the North is expected to push for relief from sanctions in return for verifiable steps on disarmament.
Mr. Kim has said he wants to refocus his policy toward the economy, which contracted by 3.5% in 2017, according to South Korea’s central bank, the worst performance in two decades.
Ken Gause, director of the adversary analytics program at CNA, a Virginia-based nonprofit think tank, said Mr. Kim could be concerned that widespread bribery is hurting growth, and in turn his political legitimacy, given his desire to boost the economy.
“He is trying to put together, within a country, an economic plan that will actually take root,” he said. “And if you have an environment that is steeped in corruption, whatever you plant in that environment will die.”
The events separately reflect Mr. Kim’s goal of taming the hawkish military and solidifying his authority while empowering doves within his cabinet as he continues diplomacy with Seoul and Washington.
Among the victims of the latest arrests and executions, according to the North Korea Strategy Center, are senior members of powerful military units that Mr. Kim’s father never touched, lest he alienate the most ardent domestic supporters of the family’s rule. It is the first time that a North Korean leader has targeted the 100,000-member Guard Command, according to the authors and other experts on North Korea.
The sweep follows similar actions in 2017 against 10 members of the General Political Bureau—the political commissariat of the North Korean military. They were executed for crimes related to “foreign reserves bribery,” according to the NKSC report.
—Warren P. Strobel contributed to this article.
============
"
北 김정은, 부자 엘리트 최대 70명 처형" 보고서 공개
전효진 기자
2019.02.20. 10:15
"홍석천도 폐점한 것 봐라" 외식업 10명 중 9명 임차인…임대료 폭탄 걱정
미국은 '비빔밥', 중국은 '김치찌개'…한국 다녀오면 '삼겹살'
© 조선일보
김정은 북한 국무위원장이 미국과 한국에 대한 자신의 외교활동에 반대하는 부유층 50~70명을 추방하거나 수감, 처형했다는 보고서가 공개됐다.
미 외신은 북한 내부 사정에 정통한 관계자를 인용해 "김 위원장이 돈이 많은 엘리트층을 공략해 재산을 몰수하고 부족한 재정을 충당하고 있다"고 전했다.
월스트리트저널(WSJ)은 19일(현지 시각) "김 위원장이 미국과 한국에 대한 북한 정권의 외교 정책에 반대하는 사람들 중 돈 많은 사회지도층을 목표로 삼아 재산을 몰수했고, 약 50~70여명의 사람들이 희생된 것으로 보인다"고 전했다.
북한 국영 언론은 이를 ‘반부패운동’으로 정의했다. 미 안보 분석가와 한국 전직 정보당국자들은 "김 위원장이 국제적 제재에 직면하자 북한 내 비판론자들의 입을 막고, 부족한 재정을 보강하기 위해 이 같은 일을 벌이고 있다"고 분석했다.
한국에 있는 싱크탱크인 북한전략센터의 보고서와 분석가들에 따르면 김 위원장이 시행한 숙청은 북한에서 막강한 지위를 이용해 불법적으로 돈을 번 고위 관리들을 겨냥한 것이다. 기득권층을 숙청하면서 압수한 금액만 수백만달러에 달한 것으로 알려졌다.
WSJ는 "북한 지도자(김 위원장)가 그동안 체제를 안정시키고 충성파들을 만족시키기 위해 어느정도 비리를 용인했지만, 그의 생각이 바뀐 것으로 보인다"며 "북한은 이제 부족한 재정을 (반부패운동을 통해) 충당하고 있다"고 전했다.
김 위원장의 부정부패 척결 발언은 지난해 말 북한 보위사령부 고위 간부들이 수만달러에 해당하는 비자금을 갖고 있는 것을 비난하면서 숙청한 이후 시작됐다. WSJ는 김 위원장이 지난 2011년 말 북한 지도자로 추대된 이후 지금까지 평양에서 400여명을 숙청했다고 전했다.
김 위원장은 지난 1월 1일 이례적으로 노동당 중앙위원회 청사 내 집무실 소파에 앉아 신년사를 발표했다. 김정은의 신년사 육성(肉聲) 발표는 집권 이후 7년째지만 앉아서 발표한 것은 처음이다. 집무실 전경을 공개한 것도 처음이다.
이를 두고 "김정은이 정상 국가 이미지 연출을 위해 트럼프 미국 대통령이나 시진핑 중국 국가주석을 모방했다"는 분석이 나왔다. 북한은 이후 김 위원장의 신년사 관철을 다짐하는 군중대회를 열고 정세와 상관없이 경제건설에 박차를 가하자고 주민들을 독려했다.
SEOUL—North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has exiled, imprisoned or executed suspected opponents of his diplomatic outreach to the U.S. and South Korea, while also targeting his country’s moneyed elite with asset seizures, according to a new report that details a purge of some 50 to 70 individuals.
The crackdown, portrayed as an anticorruption campaign in state-run media, suggests Mr. Kim is looking to silence critics and shore up his regime’s finances in the face of international sanctions, said U.S. security analysts and former South Korean intelligence officials.
Economic sanctions have pinched Pyongyang’s traditional sources of foreign currency, from exports to its access to the global banking system, and the confiscations represent a way for the regime to replenish much-needed funds.
The purge takes aim at officials who have used their powerful positions to amass wealth illicitly—albeit on a North Korean scale, according to analysts and the report from the North Korea Strategy Center, a Seoul-based think tank founded by a North Korean defector. The report’s findings are based on interviews with 20 current and former high-ranking members of the Kim regime.
In a widely watched Jan. 1 speech, Mr. Kim publicly declared a war against corruption—a rare statement by any North Korean leader, according to former South Korean intelligence officials.
Scorched Earth
The Kim regime has purged numerous elites over the years in an effort to maintain absolute control.
Estimated purges
250 people
KIM JONG UN REGIME
200
Estimated range
Known
150
100
50
0
2010
’14
’15
’11
’13
’17
’18
’12
’16
Source: North Korea Strategy Center
Party and government organs “should intensify the struggle to eradicate both serious and trivial instances of abuse of power, bureaucratism and corruption, which would wreak havoc…and undermine the socialist system,” Mr. Kim said.
The remarks came after senior officials of the North Korean Guard Command—responsible for the personal security of the Kim family—were purged late last year when the regime accused them of managing a slush fund valued at tens of thousands of dollars, according to authors of the North Korea Strategy Center report.
The Wall Street Journal couldn’t independently confirm specifics of the purge, although South Korean analysts expressed confidence in the authors’ findings about Mr. Kim’s new crackdown.
The sweep, which took off late last year, seeks mainly to confiscate foreign-cash piles amassed by the North Korean establishment, and is thought to have netted the regime as much as several million dollars, the authors of the North Korea Strategy Center report said. The authors said they interviewed 14 former North Korean officials, six current officials and five additional North Koreans now residing outside the North for their report.
“Many of these purges are related to money,” said Kim Jung-bong, a former South Korean intelligence official.
Although the North Korean leader has condoned some degree of corruption to satisfy loyalists for the sake of regime stability, sanctions appear to have altered his thinking: Pyongyang now views graft money as wealth taken from increasingly cash-strapped government coffers, the former official said.
The crackdown differs from previous ones directed by Pyongyang because it appears aimed at offenses involving unremarkable, if not broadly practiced, types of bribery, said the U.S. and South Korean security analysts.
Mr. Kim is thought to have purged around 400 individuals among the Pyongyang establishment since taking over from his father in late 2011, according to the authors, with a campaign against his influential uncle in 2013 accounting for about half that figure.
What to Expect From the Second Trump-Kim Summit
The stakes are higher for President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to agree on specifics to move forward stalled denuclearization talks during their planned summit in Vietnam at the end of February, analysts say, but no major breakthroughs are expected. Photo: Associated Press
Researchers of the Kim regime don’t see the latest crackdown as evidence that Pyongyang is in political disarray, describing Mr. Kim’s grip as firm. But in the near term, Mr. Kim needs foreign cash as international sanctions block much of the country’s potential trade. In anticipation of eventual sanctions relief, and having publicly stressed the need to develop his economy, Mr. Kim wants to clean up rampant graft to ensure economic projects aren’t undone by corruption, these people said.
The developments come as Mr. Kim prepares to meet President Trump for denuclearization talks in Hanoi next week, when the North is expected to push for relief from sanctions in return for verifiable steps on disarmament.
Mr. Kim has said he wants to refocus his policy toward the economy, which contracted by 3.5% in 2017, according to South Korea’s central bank, the worst performance in two decades.
Ken Gause, director of the adversary analytics program at CNA, a Virginia-based nonprofit think tank, said Mr. Kim could be concerned that widespread bribery is hurting growth, and in turn his political legitimacy, given his desire to boost the economy.
“He is trying to put together, within a country, an economic plan that will actually take root,” he said. “And if you have an environment that is steeped in corruption, whatever you plant in that environment will die.”
The events separately reflect Mr. Kim’s goal of taming the hawkish military and solidifying his authority while empowering doves within his cabinet as he continues diplomacy with Seoul and Washington.
Among the victims of the latest arrests and executions, according to the North Korea Strategy Center, are senior members of powerful military units that Mr. Kim’s father never touched, lest he alienate the most ardent domestic supporters of the family’s rule. It is the first time that a North Korean leader has targeted the 100,000-member Guard Command, according to the authors and other experts on North Korea.
The sweep follows similar actions in 2017 against 10 members of the General Political Bureau—the political commissariat of the North Korean military. They were executed for crimes related to “foreign reserves bribery,” according to the NKSC report.
—Warren P. Strobel contributed to this article.
============
"
北 김정은, 부자 엘리트 최대 70명 처형" 보고서 공개
전효진 기자
2019.02.20. 10:15
"홍석천도 폐점한 것 봐라" 외식업 10명 중 9명 임차인…임대료 폭탄 걱정
미국은 '비빔밥', 중국은 '김치찌개'…한국 다녀오면 '삼겹살'
© 조선일보김정은 북한 국무위원장이 미국과 한국에 대한 자신의 외교활동에 반대하는 부유층 50~70명을 추방하거나 수감, 처형했다는 보고서가 공개됐다.
미 외신은 북한 내부 사정에 정통한 관계자를 인용해 "김 위원장이 돈이 많은 엘리트층을 공략해 재산을 몰수하고 부족한 재정을 충당하고 있다"고 전했다.
월스트리트저널(WSJ)은 19일(현지 시각) "김 위원장이 미국과 한국에 대한 북한 정권의 외교 정책에 반대하는 사람들 중 돈 많은 사회지도층을 목표로 삼아 재산을 몰수했고, 약 50~70여명의 사람들이 희생된 것으로 보인다"고 전했다.
북한 국영 언론은 이를 ‘반부패운동’으로 정의했다. 미 안보 분석가와 한국 전직 정보당국자들은 "김 위원장이 국제적 제재에 직면하자 북한 내 비판론자들의 입을 막고, 부족한 재정을 보강하기 위해 이 같은 일을 벌이고 있다"고 분석했다.
한국에 있는 싱크탱크인 북한전략센터의 보고서와 분석가들에 따르면 김 위원장이 시행한 숙청은 북한에서 막강한 지위를 이용해 불법적으로 돈을 번 고위 관리들을 겨냥한 것이다. 기득권층을 숙청하면서 압수한 금액만 수백만달러에 달한 것으로 알려졌다.
WSJ는 "북한 지도자(김 위원장)가 그동안 체제를 안정시키고 충성파들을 만족시키기 위해 어느정도 비리를 용인했지만, 그의 생각이 바뀐 것으로 보인다"며 "북한은 이제 부족한 재정을 (반부패운동을 통해) 충당하고 있다"고 전했다.
김 위원장의 부정부패 척결 발언은 지난해 말 북한 보위사령부 고위 간부들이 수만달러에 해당하는 비자금을 갖고 있는 것을 비난하면서 숙청한 이후 시작됐다. WSJ는 김 위원장이 지난 2011년 말 북한 지도자로 추대된 이후 지금까지 평양에서 400여명을 숙청했다고 전했다.
김 위원장은 지난 1월 1일 이례적으로 노동당 중앙위원회 청사 내 집무실 소파에 앉아 신년사를 발표했다. 김정은의 신년사 육성(肉聲) 발표는 집권 이후 7년째지만 앉아서 발표한 것은 처음이다. 집무실 전경을 공개한 것도 처음이다.
이를 두고 "김정은이 정상 국가 이미지 연출을 위해 트럼프 미국 대통령이나 시진핑 중국 국가주석을 모방했다"는 분석이 나왔다. 북한은 이후 김 위원장의 신년사 관철을 다짐하는 군중대회를 열고 정세와 상관없이 경제건설에 박차를 가하자고 주민들을 독려했다.
No comments:
Post a Comment