Kim Jong Un is cold and cunning, but not crazy, author says

NEW YORK, May 6 (UPI) -- The author of a North Korean defector memoir said the country's leader, Kim Jong Un, is "cold, cunning, calculating, but not crazy."

Blaine Harden, who chronicled the life of North Korean defector Shin Dong-hyuk, made the comments Sunday during a guest appearance on CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS.

Harden told Zakaria that Kim Jong Un sets himself apart from his father Kim Jong Il by "reaching back to the persona of his grandfather."

"He looks like him. He acts like him. He goes out and touches people in marketplaces and at factories," Harden said.

Harden said the current leader is trying to master the populist charisma of his grandfather, Yonhap reported.

The author of Escape from Camp 14 also said the North Korean regime has succeeded in ways other totalitarian states have failed – which is to survive the creator.

"When Hitler died, Nazi Germany was gone. When Stalin died, the gulag melted away in the Soviet Union within two or three years. When Mao died, China fundamentally changed," Harden said. "When Kim Il-sung died, nothing changed."

Harden said the North Korean state has been around for 67 years, which is "twice as long as any other comparable system in world history."

But there have been substantial changes in the area of information. In the past decade, North Korean access to transistor radios has increased – available to buyers at black markets.

North Korean radios are officially registered and preset to receive only government frequencies, but can be taken to a technician who can rewire them to receive broadcasts from South Korea.

Still, Harden said, most information comes from the state, and Kim Jong Un is following in the footsteps of his grandfather who was adept at purging those who did not follow his lead.

On Tuesday Yonhap reported Google Earth imagery showed a new North Korean satellite control center was being built next to Kim Jong Un's house in Pyongyang.