More on Unruly Clients

North Korea probably didn’t need this:

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that a North Korean border guard shot dead three Chinese nationals and wounded one last week in an incident in northeast China, prompting the Chinese government to file a formal complaint.

The shootings took place last Friday at the China-North Korea border by the Chinese city of Dandong, in Liaoning Province, said Qin Gang, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, at a regularly scheduled news conference in Beijing. The four shot Chinese were residents of Dandong and were believed by the guard to be engaged in illegal trade across the border, Mr. Qin added, according to a report by the Chinese-language edition of Global Times, an official newspaper…

It was unclear how the shooting incident would affect relations between North Korea and China, which is North Korea’s closest ally in the region. China has been the host of the six-party talks, a series of negotiations among the United States, North Korea, Russia and several Asian nations aimed at curbing North Korea’s nuclear program. Last month, Kim Jong-il, the reclusive North Korean leader, made his first visit to China in four years, crossing the border by train and stopping first in the port city of Dalian, then continuing on to Beijing.

The actions of North Korean leaders have been made more opaque and unpredictable in recent months by what analysts believe is Mr. Kim’s effort to engineer a transfer of power to his third son, Kim Jong-un, 27.

Even if they were smugglers, shooting Chinese nationals as they cross the border is probably not a good way to endear oneself to Beijing. North Korea’s survival depends on Beijing’s tolerance…

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NORKs Ditch Communism, Adopt Monarchy?

Well, this is something:

North Korea has revised its constitution to give even more power to leader Kim Jong-il, ditch communism and elevate his "military first" ideology, South Korea's Unification Ministry said Monday.

Though there is little doubt over the 67-year-old Kim's power, secured by his role as chairman of the National Defense Commission, the new constitution removes any risk of ambiguity.

"The chairman is the highest general of the entire military and commands the entire country," according to a text of the constitution enacted by the reclusive North in April and only now released by the South Korean government.

The chairman is now the country's "supreme leader." Though the position had become the seat of power under Kim, the previous constitution in 1998 simply said the chairman oversees matters of state....

It was also then that word reached outside the secretive state that Kim appeared to have picked his third son as successor to the world's first communist dynasty, whose rule is underpinned by a personality cult.

But the Unification Ministry said the new charter removes all reference to communism, the guiding ideology when Kim's father Kim Il-sung founded North Korea -- of which since his death in 1994 he has been eternal president.

Often in its place is "songun," the policy of placing the military first and which has been Kim junior's ruling principle.

Korea, of course, lacks the "Spiritual" trait, meaning that it should experience some anarchy when changing Civics. I guess Kim Jong-Il must have stolen the Cristo Redentor when somebody wasn't looking...



Via Frosty.

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