This is probably the best summary of Robert Collins' new report from the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK).  The report can be downloaded directly at this link:https://www.hrnk.org/uploads/pdfs/Collins_PyongyangRepublic_FINAL_WEB.pdf

The video presentation from which this report was derived is at this link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZdKMM-3rLs

This is one of the most important reports that helps policy makers, strategists, planners, scholars, researchers, human rights activists, and students truly understand the nature of the Kim Family Regime (KFR)  (understand as in the Frank Hoffman recommended principle of war understanding - the deep understanding of the culture, politics, security apparatus, economy, etc).  One of the things that makes this report so valuable and credible is that Bob Collins was able to not only read primary source documents in Korean that were smuggled out of north Korea he conducted in depth interviews with north Koreans in their language.  He has arguably interviewed more north Koreans in their language than any other American in or out of government.

If you could only read one book on north Korea this would be it.  Those who wish predict or wish for regime collapse would do well to remember the definition we that developed when writing the first plans for north Korean instability and collapse in the 1990s:  regime collapse will occur when the KFR is no longer able to govern (through the party) from the center (Pyongyang) combined with the loss of coherency and support of the military.

High-Priority City: The ‘Republic’ of Pyongyang

The North Korean regime prioritizes the distribution of food, housing, and health care in favor of the residents of the capital city while the countryside languishes

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/1965894-high-priority-city-the-republic-of-pyongyang/

By Gary Feuerberg, Epoch Times | February 14, 2016

Last Updated: February 14, 2016 11:57 pm

North Korean soldiers march in Pyongyang in July 2013. (Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON—The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) is regarded as the most oppressive political system in the world. Isolated from the rest of the world, with malnutrition of the general public, slave labor, and the absence of individual rights and freedoms—North Korea lies ranked at the bottom of nations, where the human misery is unfathomable.

How does the current regime under Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un maintain social control and perpetuate itself? In a report released on Feb. 10 at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), author Robert Collins has provided an inside look at the DPRK, a comprehensive analysis of North Korea’s unique totalitarian control system.

In “Pyongyang Republic: North Korea’s Capital of Human Rights Denial,” Collins explains the system of sanctions and incentives that maintain the Kim Dynasty rule, culling data from a vast number of sources, including his own interviews for over 30 years of defectors in their native Korean language. All conclusions are backed up by 510 footnotes. The 177-page report is sponsored by the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK).

The power structure of the country is wholly centralized. At the top of the pyramid is the Supreme Leader and people closest to him. Geographically, the capital city, Pyongyang, is “the power center of the Kim family regime,” says Collins.

(Gary Feuerberg/ Epoch Times)

The people who are most important for the Kim family political control are predominately located in Pyongyang. The Korean Workers’ Party, all government and security agencies, and the military are run out of the capital city. It’s where Koreans enjoy the most privileges, the best food and housing, health care and schools, and culture, with Pyongyang’s gyms, museums, playgrounds, and exhibition halls. Naturally, North Koreans want to live in Pyongyang.

(Continued at the link below)

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/1965894-high-priority-city-the-republic-of-pyongyang/

Pyongyang Booms at the Expense of the Rest of N.Korea

I have often seen the analogy that north Korea is like a human body with hypothermia.  When faced with this "threat" the body does everything it can to keep the core (e.g., Pyongyang, regime elite, the military) warm.  The core stops circulation (food and supplies) to the extremities (the provinces, people. industry) that do nothing to support keeping the core warm.  The extremities eventually get frostbite and worse unless they are somehow warmed and circulation is returned.  The real problem is when the regime can no longer provide circulation to segments of the elite and the military and they have to be "de-prioritized."

Pyongyang Booms at the Expense of the Rest of N.Korea

http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2014/03/20/2014032001737.html

High-rise apartment buildings, streets lined with stores selling expensive products and high-end restaurants are cropping up in Pyongyang since North Korean leader Kim Jong-un focused state spending on the capital. But that modernizing drive has come at a heavy cost to the provinces, which are languishing in backwardness and poverty. 

"In December of 2011, after he just came to power, Kim Jong-un issued an order to populate Pyongyang by the end of 2012 with the cream of North Korean society in terms of political and ideological beliefs," a source recalls. 

Residents of Pyongyang and provincial areas were given different identity cards as the regime ensured that only the most fervent supporters of the young leader could stay in the capital. 

Divisions have existed since the 1970s, when nation founder Kim Il-sung parceled the population into three categories -- core (10-20 percent), basic (60-70 percent) and complicated (20 percent) -- and implemented discriminatory policies in terms of housing, party membership, schooling and employment. 

Those living in Pyongyang are apparently banned from marrying people from the provinces to prevent supporters of the regime from mixing with those with weaker ideological beliefs.

An undated file photo of the Pyongyang skyline /Rodong Sinmun

◆ Building Boom

The regime has spent heavily to beautify the capital, planting grass and building high-rise apartments. A water park, amusement park and equestrian club were built to win over the elite. A government source here said, "In recent years, we’ve witnessed the rise of a socialist aristocracy. They live in apartments that cost between US$30,000 to $100,000 filled with imported home appliances and furniture and they have maids to do the cleaning, spending between $500 and more than $1,000 a month."

One home in a high-riser currently under construction in Pyongyang recently sold for some $350,000. The cream of North Korean society feed their babies South Korean formula and drink imported coffee and bottled water, keeping dogs and working out at the gym. Stores in the capital sell luxury goods, where the wealthy can buy Chanel and Dior clothes and handbags. They eat at restaurants in the newly-opened swish Haedanghwa shopping mall in Pyongyong where a dish costs more than $50. 

An intelligence official here said around one percent of North Korea's population, or 240,000 people, are believed to own between $50,000 and over $100,000 in assets. Most of them live in Pyongyang.

◆ Neglect in the Provinces

But most other parts of North Korea have stopped receiving state rations of food and supplies, forcing local party officials to prey on the population there. Ordinary North Koreans have to resort to side jobs to make ends meet, but their hardships have only grown worse due to the various bribes they need to pay, according to sources. The vast majority of North Koreans outside of Pyongyang live in shabby flats or share small houses between several families.

Some analysts believe the North Korean regime has practically given up on supporting the provinces. In a front page editorial on Tuesday, North Korea's state-run Rodong Sinmun daily said the all counties "must adhere strictly to the principle of self-sufficiency." The regime's mouthpiece is openly telling people in the provinces to fend for themselves. A government official here said, "They say the number of cars, stores and mobile phones in North Korea has increased, but that is restricted to Pyongyang. There is a huge divide between Pyongyang and other parts of North Korea."

englishnews@chosun.com / Mar. 20, 2014 12:07 KST

Richardson Defends Mission to Pyongyang

I think the Governor's hubris is showing (because he implies he knows better than those in the USG or ROKG).  His "mission" is indefensible.  He has probably been one of the most exploited envoys the Kim Family Regime has ever used.

V/R

Dave

• January 4, 2013, 9:21 p.m. ET

Richardson Defends Mission to Pyongyang

By DION NISSENBAUM

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323374504578221940877389354.html?mod=WSJASIA_hps_MIDDLEFourthNews#printMode

WASHINGTON—Former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson played down objections from the Obama administration and said Friday that he would go ahead with plans to lead a private humanitarian trip to North Korea less than a month after the Asian nation carried out a widely condemned long-range missile launch.

Mr. Richardson and Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt will leave next week for a three-day visit in which the former Clinton administration official is expected to press North Korea to release a Washington state tour guide operator being held by the government.

The Obama administration privately convinced Mr. Richardson to delay the trip until after South Korea's presidential election on Dec. 19, Mr. Richardson said. This week, the State Department publicly prodded the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations to again postpone his plans.

"They are well aware of our views that the timing of this is not great from our perspective," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Friday.

Despite the appeals, Mr. Richardson said he would go ahead with the trip.

"There is never a good time to go to North Korea because there's always something negative happening there," he said. "I understand their concerns."

Mr. Richardson said the missile launch would be among the issues he raises in talks with North Korean leaders, along with the nation's nuclear ambitions and its humanitarian record. The two men aren't expected to meet with North Korea's new president, Kim Jong Eun.

The fate of the American held by North Korea emerged as a bigger concern this week when Mr. Richardson was contacted by the family.

Jonathan Bae, the son of Kenneth Bae, a 44-year-old Korean-American reportedly detained late last year by North Korea while leading a small tour of the country, wrote to Mr. Richardson and urged him to take up his father's case.

"The son contacted me the day before yesterday and said: Please bring my dad home," said Mr. Richardson. "I think that's compelling."

Jonathan Bae and Kenneth Bae's mother both declined to comment on Mr. Richardson's trip.

For more than a quarter century, Mr. Richardson has traveled to North Korea on a variety of diplomatic and humanitarian missions. He said he has delayed previous trips at the request of the State Department. In 1996, with State Department support, he helped secure release of an American civilian accused of spying on North Korea.

(Continued at the link below)

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323374504578221940877389354.html?mod=WSJASIA_hps_MIDDLEFourthNews#printMode