Wednesday, June 1, 2011

North Korean analyst: We'll be the next Asian tiger by 2012

From Foreign Policy's Passport blog:
North Korean scholar and unofficial Kim Jong Il spokesman Kim Myong Chol writes in the Asia Times on the glorious success of Dear Leader's visit to China and throws in a mighty bold prediction:  
A closer bond of friendship and solidarity that bands together two nuclear weapons states goes a long way to keeping the peace in East Asia. The enhanced ties coincide with two major developments in the global balance of power.

One is an International Monetary Fund forecast that China will become the world's number one economy in 2016, downgrading the war-weary and reluctant US into a humiliating second place. Leaderless Japan finds itself reeling from the poorly managed nuclear power disaster, while South Korea's President Lee Myung-bak and his administration are shivering in their shoes at disquieting signs of their lame-duck syndrome given their successive election defeats at the hands of disgruntled South Korean voters.

The other is a growing strong likelihood that a 2006 Citigroup prediction of North Korea becoming the next Asian tiger will come true in 2012....MORE
See also:
Kim Jong-Il and the Carbon Markets
"North Korea offers to pay its debts in ginseng"
Totally off-topic: Kentucky Fried North Korea
North Korea endorses IPCC, goes Solar
North Korean Soccer Coach Sentenced to Manual Labor for Loss (FSLR)
And from kim jong-il looking at things:

looking at plywood looking at plywood

looking at microscopes looking at microscopes