April 11 marked the likely end of the long career of the 91-year-old Kim Yong Nam, longtime Chairman of the Presidium of North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly, with the news that he has been replaced in that role by Choe Ryong Hae.

Consistently listed among the country’s top officials, second only to the ruling Kim, this man’s ability to rise to power, and stay at the top, remains unmatched in North Korean politics.

Kim Yong Nam was not born in Korea. His birthplace was Dapu Shihe village in Liaoning Province of China, or perhaps we should rather say Manchuria, since what