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:
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
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)
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