(From FP blog and the NY Times)
Kim Jong Un, the third son and successor to Kim Jong Il, visited the mausoleum where his father's body was lying in state on Tuesday. Meanwhile, praise from state media suggested that his transition to power remained on track.
In the capital of Pyongyang, weeping North Korean citizens filled the city's squares and placed flowers at monuments around the capital to mourn the death of Kim Jong Il. China and Russia, North Korea's most important allies, also declared their support for the new government.
South Korea released a statement offering its condolences and expressing hope that the two countries could work together for peace on the Korean Peninsula. It will not, however, be sending an official delegation to Kim's funeral on Dec. 28.
Meanwhile, South Korean and U.S. intelligence agencies were forced to grapple with questions of how they knew nothing of Kim's death, even two days after it occurred. The lack of reliable intelligence suggests that the two allies know relatively little about the inner workers of the Kim regime, or how the coming transition will play out.
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And on the domestic front.......cancel that Christmas vacation to Hawaii, Mr. President.
Rather than holding a straight up-or-down vote on the Senate-approved package to extend payroll tax cuts and long-term unemployment benefits for another two months — a package they oppose — House Republicans now plan to effectively reject the measure without having to cast "no" votes
As The Hill explains:
"House Republicans are setting up a vote on whether to go to a conference with the Senate. They say a vote to go to a conference with the Senate would serve as a vote against the Senate bill. Critically, however, it would be expressed as a vote in favor of going to the conference, and not a vote against cutting the payroll tax."
Or, as Politico says, "House Republicans postponed a planned Monday night vote on the Senate-passed payroll tax cut bill, bowing to pressure from rank-and-file lawmakers to fight the battle in a fresh media cycle, avoid a dark-of-night vote and, perhaps most important, find a way to reject the Senate bill without voting directly against a tax cut."
The vote is expected to happen around midday.
As Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has been saying in recent days, Republicans in the House (which they control) want the extensions to be for a full year, not two months. They don't want to just "kick the can" down the road, he says.
Getting any extension done before the payroll tax cut and long-term jobless benefits expire on Dec. 31, however, may prove impossible. The Democratic-controlled Senate has adjourned for the holidays. And Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has said his chamber won't negotiate with the House unless the short-term, two-month extensions are passed first.
6 comments:
This payroll tax cut seems rather petty as both parties seem to want extensions but are just conflicting over how long these extensions should be. The fact that this extension passed 89 to 11 in the senate shows bi-partisan support. Meanwhile the House Republicans seem to just want more media coverage for something which should not be causing any conflict in the first place.
I wonder if reconciliation between South and North Korea is possible under Kim Jong Un, since most reports indicate that, as a hand-picked successor, he's likely to follow his father's political goals. If this were to happen, the support from China and Russia and the U.S. intelligence's lack of information/preparation could put the U.S. (as well as any other country that directly opposes North Korea) at a great disadvantage.
It seems that all the outside world knows of Kim Jong Un from North Korean TV feed is that he has been groomed to take power from Kim Jong Il as his health declined. Many speculate Un's rule will be watched closely by the country's powerful military leaders who will keep traditions the silencing any possibility of the country opening up to western influence.
Even if Kim Jong Un had somewhat different ideas from his father, the people who surrounded his father and worked in his government will keep the same regime going. The pictures taken at his funeral were edited so that everything would look orderly; anyone not looking sad enough was cut out, and those who were not in line were moved. I think this shows clearly that things probably won't be able to change, but if there is a possibility, than Kim Jong Un might be it. His young age and maybe lesser political experience than other world leaders, along with negotiations with South Korea, may allow for change. But that's a lot of maybes to count on.
With Kim Jong Il's passing, many questions regarding the political future and governance of North Korea arise. While his successor will clearly be his son Kim Jong Un, many scholars question whether Kim Jong Un will merely be a puppet to Kim Jong Il's closest advisers and other high-ranking government officials who were employed under Kim Jong Il's regime.
Along a different vein, I find it astounding that U.S. Intelligence did not uncover the news of Kim Jong Il's death until two days after the fact. As the blog post states, "the lack of reliable intelligence states that [the US knows] relatively little about the inner workers of the Kim regime, or how the coming transition will play out. This is extremely daunting given the fragile relationship North Korea has with a majority of the globe-- namely, the United States.
I find North Korea one of the most interesting places in the world. While I do feel for their people, a majority of the population does not even know of a world outside North Korea. During the 2010 World Cup, I remember one North Korean was playing soccer in Japan and when he came to his North Korean team, they were all shocked to see he was carrying a foreign object: That object being a cell phone. Countering Tom Friedman's flat world view, North Korea's wall's maintain standing.
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