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China-Japan-Koreas
Nork Economic' Reformer' Back as Prime Minister
2013-04-03
A veteran technocrat who led North Korea's tentative economic reforms a decade ago has again become prime minister of the impoverished country. According to the official KCNA news agency on Monday, Pak Pong-ju's appointment was confirmed by the Supreme People's Assembly.

Pak already served as prime minister from 2003 until 2007 with the backing of former leader Kim Jong-il. A government official here said it is rare for a figure with no blood ties to the ruling family to make a successful comeback. "Pak's life is like a movie," the official added.
A horror film, in fact...
Pak's appointment was anticipated on Sunday, when the Workers Party's Central Committee appointed him to the 15-member Politburo. North Korea's eminence grise Jang Song-taek and his wife Kim Kyong-hui, Kim Jong-il's sister, are also members.

Pak is a career technocrat and has held several key posts. He came to the leadership's attention when he was a secretary at a state-run chemical factory from 1983 to 1993 and was given a vice ministerial post overseeing light industry. In 1998, he was appointed minister for the chemicals industry, and in 2002 he visited South Korea with Jang as part of an economic delegation.
Bet he was a good slurper in that time too, made sure the money went to the right places and kept Kimmie in cognac...
He was first appointed prime minister in September 2003. Kim Jong-il, shocked during visits in 2000 and 2001 by ChinaÂ’s rapid economic development, entrusted Pak with overhauling the moribund North Korean economy.

But things turned sour in 2005, when the open-air markets that were springing up across North Korea struck hardliners as one economic freedom too far. South Korean products began to appear in the markets, sparking fears of a full-scale invasion of capitalism.
We could have wished; they would have ended up like East Germany which is just what the hardliners feared.
Reactionaries like then-party finance director Pak Nam-gi struck back, causing Pak Bong-ju to lose most of his powers until he was sacked in 2007 and sent to manage a textile factory in South Pyongan Province.

But in August 2010 he was back as vice minister for light industry, his appointment coming just a month before Suet Face Kim Jong-un was anointed as his father's successor to the North Korean throne.

North Korea watchers doubt Pak will be as bold as in the past. Ryu Dong-ryeol of the Police Science Institute said, "There is a chance of limited and cautious reforms being announced, but Pak will play it safe because he won't want to get sacked again."

Some intelligence officials here even speculate that Pak is being set up as the fall guy for the North's dismal economic state.
Posted by:Steve White

#2  Pak Pong-ju has been in and out of NORK govt since the early 1960s. Rumor is that the PRC demanded that he be appointed and that one of the important Pak Pong-ju assignments is making sure that only PRC allies are able to steal govt funds.
Posted by: lord garth   2013-04-03 09:53  

#1  As per BHARAT RAKSHAK, Jong-un repor has GERMAN ADVISORS counseling him on the DPRK Economy???
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2013-04-03 02:08  

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