DPRK INSIDE BASEBALL

Fascinating stuff from the ever-reliable Aidan Foster-Carter here. Leadership re-shuffling, reading the sartorial tea-leaves (why does Kim Jong Un wear a Western-style suit on occasion?), and this thought-provoking observation:

Observing this, one can only wonder if the hereditary principle is being expanded out from the Kims alone to solidify a wider yangban class in Pyongyang. In the 21st century, on the world’s most dynamic continent, a reactionary reversion to bloodlines in what is supposedly a socialist and meritocratic regime gives scant hope of change, much less progress.