Kim Jong-il visits Kwangbok Department Store

UPDATE (2011-12-19): KJI’s financial manager appears on tour of Kwangbok.  According to Yonhap:

The head of a shadowy North Korean agency charged with managing slush funds for leader Kim Jong-il has again appeared in public after five months.

Recent footage from the North’s state television network showed Jon Il-chun standing closer to Kim than Kim’s heir apparent son, Kim Jong-un, on an inspection tour of a supermarket in Pyongyang.

Kim Jong-un is being groomed to succeed his father Kim Jong-il as the country’s next leader in what would be the country’s second hereditary power transfer.

Jon and Kim Jong-un were also seen standing side by side on an escalator at the Kwangbok Area Supermarket, according to recent photos released by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency.

Jon, who has rarely been exposed to media, was last seen on Kim’s trip to a factory in July.

He heads Office 39, which has often been referred to as Kim’s “personal safe” for its role in raising and managing secret funds for the North Korean leader.

The office is also believed to be involved in counterfeiting US$100 bills and drug trafficking.

Last year, the United States blacklisted Office 39 as one of several North Korean entities to come under new sanctions for its involvement in illegal activities such as currency counterfeiting.

ORIGINAL POST (2011-12-16): According to the Daily NK:

Chosun Central News Agency (KCNA) today reported news of an onsite inspection by Kim Jong Il, Kim Jong Eun and others to the Kwangbok District of Pyongyang, the city’s commercial center. The main site on the visit was reportedly the newly expanded and redesigned Kwangbok Department Store.

The redevelopment of the store was ordered by the elder Kim following his trips to China earlier this year, where he was repeatedly exposed to the full force of China’s commercial development.

According to KCNA, “To enhance the people’s welfare and improve their lives, upon the direct suggestion and boundless affection of the fatherly General with his perpetual concern for the people, Kwangbok Department Store, which was constructed in October, 1991, has been transformed anew into the commercial center of Kwangbok District.”

“From warehouse to sale, the realization of information technology and numerical control of all management operations guarantee accuracy and speed, and the store has been stocked to guarantee the utmost convenience of visitors,” it went on.

KCNA went on to say that Kim Jong Il listening to information from related officials, and subsequently declared himself satisfied with the way the store matched the people’s needs in all areas, from sales plans to the amount and quality of goods available.

“We must proceed with the kind of commercial activity that can sell to the people of the capital city those things that they would not be able to live without in their daily lives such as clothing, shoes, food, conveniences, family items, school goods and cultural things, and leave them with no complaint,” he emphasized.

Read the full story here:
Kim Satisfied with “Transformed” Store
Daily NK
Kang Mi Jin
2011-12-16

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