SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea’s Workers’ Party will hold a conference in mid-April, the government announced Monday, affording its new leader, Kim Jong-un, the opportunity to inherit top party posts held by his late father.

Neither the meeting’s date nor the agenda was disclosed, but party conferences have in the past helped leaders bolster their authority. At the most recent conference in September 2010 — the first in 30 years — Mr. Kim made his debut as his father’s successor and was made vice chairman of the party’s Central Military Commission. At this one, he and his closest aides are expected to dole out important party posts among themselves and their trusted associates.

RT @rivkisilver: This. Absolutely this. #Aha #80s #accordion #northkorea

RT @BBCNews: False rumour that North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un was assassinated spread on social media
#NK #NorthKorea

A Birthday Party at #NorthKorea Embassy started Kim Jong-un death rumor, a.t. @gawker

Chinese microblog site Weibo referenced Kim Jung Un assassination rumor 380k times on Friday, a.t. BBC

Chinese Twitter Says Kim Jong-Un Was Assassinated This Morning In Beijing

RT @shanghaiist: Listen: Take On Me by A-ha performed by young North Korean accordion players

wiki on American defector to North Korea

“@EvanRamstad: Here's the story behind that video of the North Korea accordion troupe playing a-ha's "Take On Me" ”

North Korea on Thursday issued a long list of strident demands, including the cancellation of joint American-South Korean military exercises, that it said South Korea should meet before ties could improve between the two Koreas.

By repeating demands that the South has already rejected, North Korea appeared to shift the blame to Seoul one day after an American assistant secretary of state, Kurt M. Campbell, urged it to improve ties with the government in Seoul before expecting a better relationship with Washington.

The Policy Department of the North’s influential National Defense Commission issued the nine demands in the form of a questionnaire.

[1] "Johnson suggests even in private, North Koreans cannot tell the truth — that everything in their lives is fictionalized to one degree or another — & Brown says that's part of why his book is so original.

"Their own biographies are captured and rewritten and made to be the thing that you imbibe and live through, and that's why the freedom of the rower becomes such a haunting thing to Jun Do," Brown says."

[2] ""[York] writes about 'dictator chic,' which has now taken over as the fall of all these dictators from the Arab Spring brings all this flight money into Europe, & invades us with their taste," Brown says. According to York, 'despot decor' is increasing in certain spots around the world."

[3] "Murphy suggests that the Inquisition, rather than being a relic of the past, is a harbinger of modern times. Brown says that the sustained ability to create a system of fear, maintain records, & monitor people through communication systems & law reminds her of more modern examples."

Kim Jong-il's surprising devotee

Pyongyang

North Korea on Friday credited the country’s new leader, Kim Jong-un , with spearheading past nuclear testing, adding to official efforts to portray the young son of the late leader Kim Jong-il as a confident military commander. The official Uriminzokkiri Web site said Friday that Mr. Kim had “frightened” the country’s enemies by commanding nuclear tests. North Korea tested nuclear devices in 2006 and 2009, but the Web site did not specify which tests Mr. Kim oversaw.