Best Defense
Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security.

How L’il Kim might go: Assassinated by a top insider, not by an organized coup

There’s a good hard-headed piece in the new ish of the 'International Journal of Korean Studies' that works through various scenarioes of how Kim Jong Il might be killed.

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Screen Shot 2015-12-10 at 10.41.37 AM

 

 

There’s a good hard-headed piece in the new ish of the International Journal of Korean Studies that works through various scenarioes of how Kim Jong Il might be killed. The conclusion: “the assassination of Kim Jong-un is more likely to be carried out by a lone assassin from the country’s top leadership at a private gathering than by a group of plotters during a public event.” Such a lone gunman exit is likely to be followed by a power struggle, predicts the author, Sungmin Cho, a former South Korean military intelligence officer now doing a PhD at Georgetown University.

(HT 2 DM)

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

Thomas E. Ricks covered the U.S. military from 1991 to 2008 for the Wall Street Journal and then the Washington Post. He can be reached at ricksblogcomment@gmail.com. Twitter: @tomricks1

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