Globe Trot: Kim Jong Un comes out of hiding

NORTH KOREA: North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un made a second public appearance last week, after six weeks of an inexplicable absence from the public eye. Speculation has run rampant over whether the leader of the reclusive regime is battling deteriorating health or whether he might be battling unseen political factions in his own inner circles.

In a lesser-reported development, another North Korean official accidentally admitted the regime does indeed have labor camps. The country’s leaders have long denied the existence of its vast system of brutal prisons for perceived dissenters, but at a recent briefing with reporters, a North Korean official grew tongue-tied over the country’s practices.

First, foreign ministry official Choe Myong Nam said the country had no prison camps but then went on to discuss its system: “Both in law and practice, we do have reform through labor detention camps—no, detention centers—where people are improved through their mentality and look on their wrongdoings.”

Whether it’s a camp or a “center,” we doubt the experience improves the mentality of hundreds of thousands of prisoners in North Korea’s gulags.

HONG KONG: Pro-democracy demonstrations entered a third week in Hong Kong, and the weekend brought clashes between the student-led protesters and police. Dozens of people were injured over the weekend, but leaders from each side said they would proceed with planned talks on Tuesday night. The demonstrators want free elections to choose the city’s next leader. Chinese officials insist on pre-approving candidates.

Meanwhile, church leaders in Hong Kong remain divided over whether to support the demonstrators or to remain silent.

WATCHING CHIBOK: We’re still closely watching reports that Boko Haram militants in northern Nigeria may release the kidnapped schoolgirls from Chibok, but fresh attacks over the weekend raised worries that the government’s purported ceasefire with the terror group may not hold. Suspected Boko Haram fighters raided two villages over the weekend, ransacking homes, and killing at least nine people.

QATAR: We’re also watching for news of whether an American couple in Qatar will go free after the Qatari government’s apparently bogus accusations that the couple killed their adopted daughter. A hearing was set for today, but news hasn’t yet broken on whether the Qatari government will lift the couple’s travel ban and allow them to come home.

NOTE: No Globe Trot on Wednesday or Friday. We’ll return with a fresh post on Monday, Oct. 27.