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Geopolitics

North Korea Army Chief Unexpectedly Removed Because Of ‘Illness’

THE KOREA TIMES (South Korea), THE KOREA HERALD (South Korea), NEW YORK TIMES

Worldcrunch

SEOUL - North Korea has relieved its army chief Ri Yong Ho of all government posts because of an "illness," prompting speculation of a possible power struggle within the secretive regime, South Korea's daily newspaper The Korea Herald reports.

The North's state-run Korean Central News Agency startled Pyongyang watchers with the announcement that Ri Yong Ho, until now widely seen as one of Kim Jong-un"s most trusted mentors, had been removed from all posts because of "illness," The New York Times reports from Seoul, adding that North Korea had also cited "health issues' when it fired a police chief and a vice prime minister last year.

Some analysts, saying Ri appeared relatively healthy in recent photographs, suggested the move could be the result of a power struggle within the elite, with speculation focusing on a rising power player named Choe Ryong-hae. "It is possible that Choe tried to put the military under his control and Ri resisted, and that the latter was removed from his post as a result," Cheong Seong-chang, a senior fellow at the Sejong Institute told by South Korean daily The Korea Times.

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Geopolitics

Yes, Xi Jinping Is Now More Powerful Than Mao Zedong Ever Was

After being re-elected as head of the Communist Party last year, the Chinese leader has been unanimously re-elected to another five-year term as head of state. Now, wielding more power than any other past Chinese communist leader, he wants to accelerate the rise of Chinese influence around the world.

Photo of huge portrait of Xi Jinping

Huge portrait of Xi Jinping is displayed in the National Day mass pageantry celebrating the 70th founding anniversary of the People's Republic of China

Yann Rousseau

-Analysis-

BEIJING — Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping has been re-elected to a third five-year term at the head of the world's second largest economic power. Nobody was surprised.

The vote took place during a legislative assembly convened to rubber stamp decisions of the authoritarian power, during which 2,952 parliamentarians unanimously approved Xi's re-election before rising, in perfect choreography, to offer a prolonged standing ovation to their leader. As usual, Xi remained completely neutral in the face of the enthusiasm.

His victory was a mere formality after his re-election last fall as the head of the all-powerful party, which controls all of the country's political institutions, and after legislative amendments to erase term limits that would have forced him out.

Xi Jinping, who took over the presidency in 2013, "is now the most powerful leader in the history of the People's Republic, since its founding in 1949. Institutionally, he holds even more power than Mao Zedong," says Suisheng Zhao, a professor and Chinese foreign policy expert at the University of Denver.

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