Jean H. Lee Profile picture
North Korea watcher. Visiting POSCO Fellow at @EastWestCenter and co-host of @BBC's #LazarusHeist podcast series - Season 2 is out now! Find me on IG: @newsjean
Jul 26, 2020 9 tweets 7 min read
Some quick analysis on KJU & his latest politburo meeting on #COVID19 yesterday because this is not just about #NorthKorea reporting a potential outbreak for the first time, as significant & newsworthy as that is. Image Background: Despite sharing a long border with China, #NorthKorea claims it does not have a single confirmed case of #COVID19, which is hard to believe. But without access, we have no way right now of knowing the truth, and I think we need to be skeptical of all info from #DPRK.
Apr 21, 2020 6 tweets 2 min read
I’m having flashbacks to Sept. 2008, when KJU’s father, then-leader Kim Jong Il, failed to show up for a military parade marking a major national anniversary. THAT was cause for concern. We put out a news alert. (I was AP’s Korea bureau chief at the time) We hounded intel officials, and finally got confirmation from multiple reliable sources that Kim Jong Il had suffered a stroke a few weeks earlier & was in a coma. #NorthKorea kept this quiet for weeks! That's how much of a hold on information the regime has.
Apr 13, 2019 5 tweets 4 min read
#NorthKorea has published #KimJongUn take on what happened in Hanoi. He positions himself as the rational, flexible person in US-DPRK #nuclear negotiations. Essentially says US team came unprepared & disorganized. #KCNA Kim: “In a word, the U.S. did not ready itself to sit face to face with us and settle the problem nor had a clear direction and methodology.” So Kim’s getting a taste for how things work these days in the White House.