Breaking News! Kim Jong-il Is Dead!

[Marx]

Not sure if it's real or not, but it's funny.

It would be hilarious if not for the fact that some of the people in North Korea probably believe something like that.

 

[Raiden]

UPDATE: FUNERAL FOR "DEAR LEADER" TO BE HELD TOMORROW
http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/27/world/asia/north-korea-leader-funeral/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

I know I've said this before but the over-the-top grief that some of these "supporters" are showing is beyond disturbing.

I think the world will get the opportunity to see just how sheltered the people from North Korea are from the outside by their authoritian government when we see the kind of funeral service that they're throwing for their late ruler.

 

[Marx]

I just saw a clip on CNN of a car in the procession. It had a giant framed picture of Jong Il on the roof. (I'm talking at least 10x15 feet.)

 

[Marx]

...here's an article from the AP about the funeral.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/27/kim-jong-il-funeral_n_1172003.html

 

[Thundercrack85]

How old is that car? Seriously. And it looks... American.

 

[Axl Van Sixx]

It would be hilarious if not for the fact that some of the people in North Korea probably believe something like that.

You're not far off. From The Toronto Star:

Just before Kim Jong Il died, the skies glowed red above sacred Mount Paektu and the impenetrable sheet of ice at the heart of the mystical volcano cracked with a deafening roar.

At least, that’s the official account of the supernatural circumstances preceding Kim’s death last Saturday at age 69, as relayed by the state-run Korean Central News Agency. The news agency is one of the chief propaganda organs tasked with building up the quasi-religious mystique around the Kims, North Korea’s only rulers since its founding in 1948.

Official descriptions of Kim Jong-il's birth in North Korean propaganda honestly read like the Christmas nativity story:

Kim Jong Il’s official biography says he was “heaven sent,” born in a log cabin in Mount Paektu while his father was fighting the Japanese.

“Wishing him to be the lodestar that would brighten the future of Korea, they hailed him as the Bright Star of Mt. Paektu,” his biography reads.

Lore has it soldiers spread the news of his birth by inscribing the announcement on trees across the country — a practice that North Koreans continue today by carving the leaders’ messages into rocks and mountainsides.

Soviet records, however, reportedly indicate Kim Jong Il was born the year earlier in the Siberia.

The account of his death was just as mythic. His obituary in state media called him the “illustrious commander born of Heaven,” and on Wednesday, KCNA said a Manchurian crane spotted in the city of Hamhung circled a statue of Kim Il Sung for hours before dropping its head and taking off toward Pyongyang. The crane is a traditional Korean symbol of longevity.

The mythmaking for Kim Jong Un has begun as well, with an editorial in the Rodong Sinmun newspaper calling him “born of heaven.” However, details of his birth, and the accompanying legend, have not yet been revealed.

 

[Thundercrack85]

And they say all communists are atheists.

 

[Raiden]

For a country that is supposedly communist, the way they worship their leader seemed to be the polar opposite of that.

 

[Axl Van Sixx]

For a country that is supposedly communist, the way they worship their leader seemed to be the polar opposite of that.

I know, right? It's almost as if...North Korea isn't really communist at all.

 

[Thundercrack85]

I know, right? It's almost as if...North Korea isn't really communist at all.

If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck... I forget how the rest goes. Leader worship is a pretty universal communist theme though. Lenin, Mao... did they put Stalin on display when he croaked? Granted, the Kims have turned it into an art form.

 

[Sawyer]

Jesus, these people must have Stockholm Syndrome or something....

 

[Thundercrack85]

Jesus, these people must have Stockholm Syndrome or something....

That or the guns trained on them. Cry or you get shot. Though some of them really are that deluded. They know nothing else.

 

[Hobgoblin]

That or the guns trained on them. Cry or you get shot. Though some of them really are that deluded. They know nothing else.

A little of column A, a little of column B.

 

[Thundercrack85]

Any ideas on how the Kims got their hands on a fleet of Lincoln Continentals? Guess even communists like capitalistic cars.

 

[Axl Van Sixx]

If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck... I forget how the rest goes. Leader worship is a pretty universal communist theme though. Lenin, Mao... did they put Stalin on display when he croaked? Granted, the Kims have turned it into an art form.

What you're really saying is, the personality cult around Kim is just like that of all the other Stalinist countries you've ever heard of, therefore North Korea is a Stalinist state. That I can agree with. But there's little that's "communist" about any of them.

Marx, Lenin and Trotsky were all against any kind of personality cult. Lenin was embalmed against the wishes of his wife, who said: ""All his life Vladimir Ilyich was against icons, and now they have turned him into an icon." Trotsky railed against Stalin's personality cult for decades.

"Neither of us cares a straw for popularity. Let me cite one proof of this: such was my aversion to the personality cult that at the time of the International, when plagued by numerous moves – originating from various countries – to accord me public honour, I never allowed one of these to enter the domain of publicity, nor did I ever reply to them, save with an occasional snub. When Engels and I first joined the secret communist society, we did so only on condition that anything conducive to a superstitious belief in authority be eliminated from the Rules."

- Karl Marx, Letter to Bloss (1877)

 

[SV Fan]

I couldn't find a Korea thread so I'll just post this here

http://news.yahoo.com/nkorea-not-single-vote-cast-against-kim-jong-043526489.html

NKorea: Not a single vote cast against Kim Jong Un

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — With no one else on the ballot, state media reported Monday that supreme leader Kim Jong Un was not only elected to the highest legislative body in North Korea, he won with the unanimous approval of his district, which had 100 percent turnout.

North Koreans went to the polls on Sunday to approve the new roster of deputies for the Supreme People's Assembly, the country's legislature. The vote, more a political ritual than an election by Western standards, is generally held once every five years.

Though results for the other seats in the assembly had not yet been announced, North Korea's media quickly reported Kim had won in his district — located on the symbolic Mount Paekdu — without a single dissenting ballot.

Hopefully the Republicans call out Obama for not having such support from his country like UN

 

[KevanG]

I was wondering if he came back from the dead or something.

 

[DaddlerTheDalek]

100 percent... They don't even try...

 

[Thundercrack85]

The sad thing, is even if they had real elections, Kim Jong-un would probably win anyway since the average North Korean is so damn brainwashed.

 

[DaddlerTheDalek]

I know. But even the GDR tried to make it look kind of Real. But 100%? That just takes the cake. It's just a Giant Troll.