Kim Jung Ill takes a dirt Nap!

Nothing at all to worry about!

.....just a very well armed, nuclear capable country whose people have to eat rocks and stare at a rich country to the south that they're still technically at war with, and that they firmly believe they should be 'reunited' with.
Now being led (?) by a 28-year-old dictator with dubious lineage.

Nothing at all to worry about.....

 

I'm with you Bro, what could possibly go wrong?

 

Axis of evil - Hussein dead, gaddafi dead, now jong il dead. Hopefully Iran will reform from within.

I can not understand wishing for the continued rule of this truely evil man that starved his own people. I hope we can finally get troops out of korea, and some sort of peaceful coexistance can happen with south korea and china. The murderer was bad for his country and the world.

 

I wonder how much of that is real and how much is staged? Note that the big majority of the "mourners" are relatively well dressed and healthy looking in a country where mass malnutrition and abject poverty are the norm.

 

Starving his own people was real, North Korea said the situation has been better the last 5 years. It is a stratified society, I'm sure those orchestrated to be at the funeral shots would look healthy. Even the very poor often have one decent outfit.

 

The footage I've seen looks like it was filmed in Pyongyang, where apparently only more privileged/elite people are allowed to live. North Koreans aren't allow to move freely about their country.

 

The mourning citizens and those in military garb are truly a scene from a bad B-Movie. The crying scene looks so staged. Perhaps if they're on camera and are not crying, their lives might be at stake. It is believed that Jong Un was the one who ordered the attack on the South Korean island and the sinking of the naval ship to prove to the nation and to his demented dad that he has power.

He not only looks deranged but looks incapable of ruling a nation. Lets hope he doesn't play around with the "button" to launch a nuclear missile mistaking it for a game.

 

While being a supreme leader over a country is not my greatest ambition, if I were it would not have remotely the cult worship that goes on in countries like N Korea...it's forced, ridiculously over-the-top, and full-well know I'm just another mortal.

 

It is difficult to know what is going on in a closed society. We can not know if the crying was because they believed the lies, or if they were acting. In the realpolotik, the attacks were not to prove he has power, but to prove he is one of them, and continue the military Stalinist state. His big half brother lost jong il's confidence when he was caught sneaking into to japan on a fake passport to go to tokyo disneyland. That does not seem like the actions that would keep the cult of personality alive.

It is difficult to read anything into what kim jong uin will do. He has pushed for reforms to get elites internet access and cell phones, but he can quickly take them away. If anything the fact that kim jong il only had 1.5 years to groom him means it is less likely that he is as infected by his version of despotism. Assad in syria is still extremely bad, but not as bad as his father, and his dad had 6 years to train him to be as ruthless and despotic as possible. To the US kim jong uins youth has to be a positive. The military really is unlikely attack him, since the legitamacy of their power lies completely in the idea of the ruling family. He can do bad things, and for china the bad scenario is if he lets his poor go, who will flood into china and south korea as refugees.

Crazy old Kim jong il was much more likely to militarily attack, and send a nuke into Japan or south korea. Kim jong uin could also do this, but there is nothing in his history to suggest he will either starve his own people or fire a nuke causing massive deaths in north korea. kim jong il successfully used the nuke for blackmail money and power, if kim jong uin uses one the blackmail money stops and the military gets destroyed. Not that totalitarian dictators are strickly rational mind you, but you should greet this with hope not fear.

 

There is a lot of history to figure out the possibilities of what will happen. While a lot of the population can mourn his passing, a whole lot of military tyrants are looking for an opening. Consider the chess game between Beria and Khrushchev that resulted in the fight to the death of the loser. Sooner or later the military power holders win (e.g. Pakistan). I really don't think Kim Jong Un is surrounded by acolytes that desire ceding all power to him. He would make a great figurehead like Japan's emperor in WWII.

 

Can't go by looks, some people appear sane and reasonable and turn out to be a disaster.

 

New Leader could be interesting, old leader had supreme power, thus the people thought of him as a god, new leader has just given half his power to the military, how will the people view him from now on, thats the question.

 

What's more scary than Jong Un is a military coup. There may be some trigger happy leaders there. Let's hope not and Jong Un decides to want to make peace with the rest of the world.

 

Here's another piece on NK that I saw long ago. Luckily, someone uploaded it to YouTube.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkrYGw-llOM&feature=player_embedded"]North Korea - Suspicious Minds - Part 3 of 3 - YouTube[/ame]

I showed one of my Korean friends the above years ago (he can speak Korean but not read/write it well) and when we got to the 5:55 mark of part 2 where the girl's singing the song, his reaction was basically "OMG! I can't watch this!" I'd characterize his reaction as being appalled and sickened that a little girl had been brainwashed into singing that drivel.

I visited SK and the DMZ about 2 years ago. I saw the blue buildings and was in one of them, which straddles NK and SK. One half of the building is in SK and the other in NK.