Put the champagne bottle down and cease all premature celebrations. Recent announcements of a spate of North Korean defectors, some of whom were from the core class, are not necessarily any harbingers of regime collapse. More likely it is merely a few cadres beginning to understand that things might be turning against them, and – seeing an opportunity to avoid potential problems – make off with whatever they can. 

With this string of defections, now is the time to find out what information we can extract from these financial insiders regarding Kim Jong Un’s personal cash caches overseas. I can think of no reason why we ought not to be able to pursue this enough to firstly, severely disrupt Kim’s private purse, and secondly, expose the institutions that abet them in hiding his secret hoards.