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A review by wyntrchylde
The Sister by Sung-Yoon Lee
3.0
The Sister
Author: Sung-Yoon Lee
Publisher: PublicAffairs, Hachette Book Group
Publishing Date: 2023
Pgs: 290
=======================
REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS
Genre:
History
North Korea
South Korea
Fascism
Asia
Politics
Why this book:
Know your enemy, and all that. Newsmakers. Described as a North Korean Game of Thrones. I expect if Kim Jong Un doesn’t watch himself, she will be sitting all alone at the top of North Korea’s government.
_________________
The Feel:
If she succeeds Kim Jong Un, she will be the most frightening nuclear warlord on the planet.
Hmm Moments:
Kim Jong Un grooming her as his heir apparent, doesn’t necessarily bode well for his wife and children when he passes…or is helped on his way by an ambitious heir. And she seems decidedly ambitious.
Uhm Moments:
Her titles, that we know of include Censor-in-Chief[unofficial], Department of Propaganda and Agitation / Department of Information and Publicity of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea. Her and Kim Jong Un’s father had also led this department, more a Ministry, before becoming Supreme Leader on the death of her grandfather. So, Kim Yo Jong was being groomed even before her father’s death, and sexism probably played a role in her not becoming the first female supreme leader in the communist world. After COVID, she assumed even more duties, effectively becoming Deputy Dear Leader. She became the de facto head of the Department of Organization and Guidance, which oversees military personnel, political surveillance, punishment, commendation, monitoring, demotion, promotion, punishment, rewards, banishment, and the every popular executed in the town square, giving her power over other members of her family, and all of the elite of North Korea, and every soul in North Korea, except her brother, Kim Jong Un. She, after that, was authorized by Kim Jong Un to be in charge of NK’s enemy foreign policy, effectively making her his Secretary of State. In recent years, she has taken back the chair, if she ever really left it, of her original department, though now with a real title, Vice Director. There are rumors that she was made an alternate member of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party, and that she was later stripped of that title. Kim Jong Un followed his father’s playbook in bringing along Little Sister, but he has also helped craft the viper that his father birthed. And with this much power, she, no doubt, has an exit strategy that doesn’t involve running away, but rather self-promotion.
Calling the Ball:
If what happened to her uncle, Jang Song Thaek, who served as Kim Jong Un’s regent for two years as he got his legs under him in the role of Dear Leader, doesn’t play in her mind, I’d be shocked. Utility and perceived utility are different things, Kim Yo Jong is smart enough to know this. It’s not a power struggle yet, but it could be, and soon.
Based on the charm offensive that lured President Moon into criminality in the chase for peace, Donald Trump falling in love with Kim Jong Un was a foregone conclusion. Once they started complimenting him, he was putty in their hands.
In 2022, while giving a propagandist statement about North Korean missile tests, and berating South Korean leadership, the Deputy Dear Leader referred to them as “her” missiles.
WTF Moments/RUFKM Moments:
South Korean President Moon was an idiot or a covert sleeper agent dressed up in, small r, republican clothing. Though his being a useful, and hopeful idiot, may better describe him. He drank the North Korean Kool Aid after the image makeover of the South Korean Winter Olympics. But he also had a past as a dissident. But his openly handing Kim Jong Un a USB drive while mouthing the words power plant sealed his political future during a 45 minute one on one tete a tete. A subsequent audit of the South Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy revealed the deletion of files believed to be the same ones shared with Kim, plans for industrial, power, and infrastructure projects in North Korea, nuclear industrial, power, and infrastructure. Despite that being a violation of UN Security Council Resolutions, it was also insurmountably stupid. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me again, and again, and again, shame on me.
Juxtaposition:
The book rails against North Korea about the starving of their own people while their elites wallow in comfort. But take this quote and insert any oligarchy or wealthy group of elites around the world and you see, not to excuse the horror of the Kim regime, but it is telling. “While their fellow INSERT RELATIVE GROUP HERE starve, condemned to a life of extreme deprivation and state terror, they have had no reason to fear hunger, poverty, rebellion, or even the least t criticism from their own people.” What then is the excuse of so-called enlightened nations that their citizens starve and are homeless? And before someone jumps me, we're talking a matter of degrees here, and yes I am comparing the poor and homeless starving to an entire country starving, one person anywhere in the year 2024 is too damned many.
Forgotten Lesson/Forgotten Common Sense:
No sympathy, but the DPRK military and governmental elites fearing her is their own damned fault. The opportunity to overthrow the Kim dynasty was there when Kim Il Sung died and, after his subsequent reign, his son, Kim Jong Il died. Despite the purges and whim based removals, they probably believed as the rest of the world did that the Swiss educated pair now in control would be more convivial and moral. They are their father’s children. And if anything are more bloodthirsty.
Missed Opportunity:
Many in ROK leadership seem to have intimate partner violence syndrome where instead of escaping the abusive relationship, every time their abuser says they won’t do it again, but baby I love you, they forgive and go further to mend the relationship.
Predictability/Non-Predictability:
Not sure if we’ve reached the point in the cycle where they are about to start playing nice again to get an influx of tribute in the guise of aid, or if we’re still on the abuse and threat part of the cycle.
_________________
Last Page Sound:
I’ll be amazed if Kim Jong Un lives to die a natural death. At some point, despite her loyalty to the Mount Paektu Bloodline, she is going to want to not be a shadow leader, a second, a deputy, and will think herself ready to take her brother’s place either due to his health or his changing attitudes as he ages and his unhealthy body and lifestyle catch up to him.
Conclusions I’ve Drawn:
ROK President Moon was effectively the Neville Chamberlain of the modern Korean Cold War. And his party's incessant bending the knee to NPRK wants could have led up so much worse on the Korean Peninsula.
Author: Sung-Yoon Lee
Publisher: PublicAffairs, Hachette Book Group
Publishing Date: 2023
Pgs: 290
=======================
REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS
Genre:
History
North Korea
South Korea
Fascism
Asia
Politics
Why this book:
Know your enemy, and all that. Newsmakers. Described as a North Korean Game of Thrones. I expect if Kim Jong Un doesn’t watch himself, she will be sitting all alone at the top of North Korea’s government.
_________________
The Feel:
If she succeeds Kim Jong Un, she will be the most frightening nuclear warlord on the planet.
Hmm Moments:
Kim Jong Un grooming her as his heir apparent, doesn’t necessarily bode well for his wife and children when he passes…or is helped on his way by an ambitious heir. And she seems decidedly ambitious.
Uhm Moments:
Her titles, that we know of include Censor-in-Chief[unofficial], Department of Propaganda and Agitation / Department of Information and Publicity of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea. Her and Kim Jong Un’s father had also led this department, more a Ministry, before becoming Supreme Leader on the death of her grandfather. So, Kim Yo Jong was being groomed even before her father’s death, and sexism probably played a role in her not becoming the first female supreme leader in the communist world. After COVID, she assumed even more duties, effectively becoming Deputy Dear Leader. She became the de facto head of the Department of Organization and Guidance, which oversees military personnel, political surveillance, punishment, commendation, monitoring, demotion, promotion, punishment, rewards, banishment, and the every popular executed in the town square, giving her power over other members of her family, and all of the elite of North Korea, and every soul in North Korea, except her brother, Kim Jong Un. She, after that, was authorized by Kim Jong Un to be in charge of NK’s enemy foreign policy, effectively making her his Secretary of State. In recent years, she has taken back the chair, if she ever really left it, of her original department, though now with a real title, Vice Director. There are rumors that she was made an alternate member of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party, and that she was later stripped of that title. Kim Jong Un followed his father’s playbook in bringing along Little Sister, but he has also helped craft the viper that his father birthed. And with this much power, she, no doubt, has an exit strategy that doesn’t involve running away, but rather self-promotion.
Calling the Ball:
If what happened to her uncle, Jang Song Thaek, who served as Kim Jong Un’s regent for two years as he got his legs under him in the role of Dear Leader, doesn’t play in her mind, I’d be shocked. Utility and perceived utility are different things, Kim Yo Jong is smart enough to know this. It’s not a power struggle yet, but it could be, and soon.
Based on the charm offensive that lured President Moon into criminality in the chase for peace, Donald Trump falling in love with Kim Jong Un was a foregone conclusion. Once they started complimenting him, he was putty in their hands.
In 2022, while giving a propagandist statement about North Korean missile tests, and berating South Korean leadership, the Deputy Dear Leader referred to them as “her” missiles.
WTF Moments/RUFKM Moments:
South Korean President Moon was an idiot or a covert sleeper agent dressed up in, small r, republican clothing. Though his being a useful, and hopeful idiot, may better describe him. He drank the North Korean Kool Aid after the image makeover of the South Korean Winter Olympics. But he also had a past as a dissident. But his openly handing Kim Jong Un a USB drive while mouthing the words power plant sealed his political future during a 45 minute one on one tete a tete. A subsequent audit of the South Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy revealed the deletion of files believed to be the same ones shared with Kim, plans for industrial, power, and infrastructure projects in North Korea, nuclear industrial, power, and infrastructure. Despite that being a violation of UN Security Council Resolutions, it was also insurmountably stupid. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me again, and again, and again, shame on me.
Juxtaposition:
The book rails against North Korea about the starving of their own people while their elites wallow in comfort. But take this quote and insert any oligarchy or wealthy group of elites around the world and you see, not to excuse the horror of the Kim regime, but it is telling. “While their fellow INSERT RELATIVE GROUP HERE starve, condemned to a life of extreme deprivation and state terror, they have had no reason to fear hunger, poverty, rebellion, or even the least t criticism from their own people.” What then is the excuse of so-called enlightened nations that their citizens starve and are homeless? And before someone jumps me, we're talking a matter of degrees here, and yes I am comparing the poor and homeless starving to an entire country starving, one person anywhere in the year 2024 is too damned many.
Forgotten Lesson/Forgotten Common Sense:
No sympathy, but the DPRK military and governmental elites fearing her is their own damned fault. The opportunity to overthrow the Kim dynasty was there when Kim Il Sung died and, after his subsequent reign, his son, Kim Jong Il died. Despite the purges and whim based removals, they probably believed as the rest of the world did that the Swiss educated pair now in control would be more convivial and moral. They are their father’s children. And if anything are more bloodthirsty.
Missed Opportunity:
Many in ROK leadership seem to have intimate partner violence syndrome where instead of escaping the abusive relationship, every time their abuser says they won’t do it again, but baby I love you, they forgive and go further to mend the relationship.
Predictability/Non-Predictability:
Not sure if we’ve reached the point in the cycle where they are about to start playing nice again to get an influx of tribute in the guise of aid, or if we’re still on the abuse and threat part of the cycle.
_________________
Last Page Sound:
I’ll be amazed if Kim Jong Un lives to die a natural death. At some point, despite her loyalty to the Mount Paektu Bloodline, she is going to want to not be a shadow leader, a second, a deputy, and will think herself ready to take her brother’s place either due to his health or his changing attitudes as he ages and his unhealthy body and lifestyle catch up to him.
Conclusions I’ve Drawn:
ROK President Moon was effectively the Neville Chamberlain of the modern Korean Cold War. And his party's incessant bending the knee to NPRK wants could have led up so much worse on the Korean Peninsula.