The one where Kushibo called it on KJI's China trip

Can I call 'em or what?

Straight from one of the horses' mouth: PRC Premier Wen Jiabao is saying that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's trip to china was about learning how China's economy works, particularly the part of China close to North Korea.

From Bloomberg:

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il was invited to China to learn about the country’s economic restructuring and use that knowledge to revive his own nation’s shrinking economy, Premier Wen Jiabao said.

Wen made the comments during a meeting with South Korea’s President Lee Myung Bak in Tokyo, where the two leaders held a summit with Japan’s Prime Minister Naoto Kan, Lee’s office said in a statement on its website. Kim arrived in Yangzhou in the eastern Chinese province of Jiangsu yesterday on the third day of his trip, Seoul-based Yonhap News reported.

Got that? This is exactly what I said here and here and here: the Dear Leader is being called over to Northeastern China, with an extra leg near Shanghai, to learn about Socialism With Chinese Characteristics so that Kim Jong-il can do the same in the DPRK.

You can't see it right now, but Kushibo is doing a cocky little "I'm right yet again" dance around the dorm room. Well, if you pay $19.95 a month, you could be seeing it.

But it's not about the contrarian Kushibo coming up with the correct analysis yet again while the mainstream media keeps harping on the Kim Jong-un-is-the-next-leader crap. It's about concern that the lazy media in South Korea, the US, and elsewhere are stuck on that one facile note, and it becomes the lens through which they (mis)interpret everything. It really does seem that they're missing the boat on the Kim Who Wasn't There, and thus they're ignoring the real story.

This trip has little to do with Kim Jong-un and everything to do with stepping up the Manchurianization of North Korea.

Meanwhile, Adam Cathcart over at Sinologistical Violoncellist has an interesting post listing twenty-eight things you may have missed about Kim Jong-il's trip to Big Brother China.