https://www.scmp.com/rss/325200/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Anna Fifield Anna Fifield North Korea used to be a hermit kingdom, where everyone was equally poor. Everyone, that is, except for the ruling Kim family. But all that has changed since Kim Jong-un took over the dictatorship in 2011, at the preposterously young age of 27. To defy the odds and stay in control, the Great Successor, as he was then known, has coddled the elite who keep him in power. And among this select group, there is one subset that Kim particularly wants to enrich: they are the millen­nials, the people of... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3022753/kim-jong-uns-secret-weapons-his-wife-his-sister?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/3022753/kim-jong-uns-secret-weapons-his-wife-his-sister?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 17 Aug 2019 10:30:11 +0000 It takes one hour and 45 minutes to fly from Shenyang, the sprawling capital of Liaoning province, in northeastern China and not far from the border with North Korea, to Seoul, the capital of South Korea. It’s the kind of flight in which passengers have to gobble down their beef and rice before the attendants come around telling them to stow their tray tables for landing. But for the North Koreans who escape from Kim Jong-un’s regime, by way of China, there is no quick flight onward. Instead,... https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2111386/escape-north-korea-defectors-risk-all-perilous?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/magazines/post-magazine/long-reads/article/2111386/escape-north-korea-defectors-risk-all-perilous?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 16 Sep 2017 00:15:18 +0000