Kim Jong Il Dead?

[HOZ]

The "no tears" wailing wass incredible. The video above shows he was as stiff at 13 as he was now. Honestly that HAD to have been the ENTIRE NK fleet of cars.

[FlamesPuck12]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

Defectors have mentioned that there is pressure to perform and "outcry" and "outgrieve" the person next to you because North Koreans know they are always being watched. When his father died in 1994, there were several catagories of loyalty that people were classified into and there were rumors that your level of grief was one factor in how you were classified.

A schoolteacher who defected to the South mentioned that she even saw young school-children putting saliva on their faces to make it look like they were crying.

I've heard that the crying when Kim Il Sung died in 1994 was mostly genuine since the North was in a better situation than the South for most years leading up to his death.

[Playfair]

Pictures of North Korea from 2008 until 2010. A lot of the pictures I have never seen before. Usually you see standard pictures, but here we have diversity.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/200...rth_korea.html

[URL="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2010/sep/27/north-korea-kim-jong-il?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487#/?picture=367060054&index=0"]

[JohnnyB]

I had really been hoping to make a trip to North Korea next year, but I'm a little more hesitant now that there is instability in the crazy over there. I hope it's still viable to get in come summer 2012.

[Trojan97]

Required viewing for anyone with interest in North Korea..

http://www.vice.com/the-vice-guide-t...h-korea-1-of-3
http://www.vice.com/the-vice-guide-t...h-korea-2-of-3
http://www.vice.com/the-vice-guide-t...h-korea-3-of-3

And the most recent one...

http://www.vice.com/vice-news/north-...ps-full-length

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by FlamesPuck12

I've heard that the crying when Kim Il Sung died in 1994 was mostly genuine since the North was in a better situation than the South for most years leading up to his death.

The North Koreans probably still think that. They wouldn't know any better today.

[Rerun]

Originally Posted by FlamesPuck12

I've heard that the crying when Kim Il Sung died in 1994 was mostly genuine since the North was in a better situation than the South for most years leading up to his death.

Really? Wow.. I would have never thought that. Have I been mislead by the western imperialist media moguls?

[CaptainCrunch]

Actually its true, South Korea was economically backwards after the split, it took them a while to ruthlessly build the infrastructure and industry that they have now.

Both Korea's were experiements in client states. On one side you had the Soviets and to a smaller extent at the time the Chinese. On the other you have the Americans. Both sides were looking for the ultimate propaganda victory of developing a strong successful client state.

[Rerun]

Found this graph in an article in the Washington Post.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...sP4O_blog.html

Looks to me like South Korea started leaving North Korea in its dust from 1976 on.

[GirlySports]

South Korea struggled in the 1970s, student demonstrations, political coup attempts, ruthless dictator in Park-Chung-Hee for 18 years until he was assasinated in 1979.

The Captain is right, everything South Korea did was for the US. Even their soliders were paid by the US. It wasn't until the 1980s that they found their own way.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

South Korea struggled in the 1970s, student demonstrations, political coup attempts, ruthless dictator in Park-Chung-Hee for 18 years until he was assasinated in 1979.

The Captain is right, everything South Korea did was for the US. Even their soliders were paid by the US. It wasn't until the 1980s that they found their own way.

Park-Chung-Hee was piece of work in his own right, he was as controlling and authoratarian as it gets, but he also got the economy rolling in South Korea, he also gets a lot of credit for pushing through some very unpopular trade agreements with the Japanese which utterly springboarded South Korea.

Funnily enough he was killed by the head of his own CIA which mirrors the conspiracy theorists beliefs about Kennedy and the CIA.

Meanwhile in the North, Kim Il-Sung was originally way more in the camp of Stalin which could have lead to a similar industrial improvement but his Korean War adventures actually pissed off Stalin eventually caused a severe cooling of USSR North Korean relations and allowed China to step into the vacuum and assume de-facto control over North Korea's intelligence agencies and members of the ruling council.

[Playfair]

North Korea altered pictures of Kim Jong Il funeral...

http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/12...oshop-funeral/

[GirlySports]

I'm really surprised why the Western media even cares about North Korea and it's leader's death. The coverage has been wall-to-wall.

If (I don't know) Silvio Berlusconi died tomorrow, I don't think it would get this much coverage.

[Bill Bumface]

Personally I find it insanely fascinating. In an age where I can hop on google maps and check out what almost anyone's street looks like, the fact there is a country that very few outsiders have actually seen besides the parts dressed up to show visitors is such a strange concept. I love all of the posts of NK photos.

[Cowperson]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

I'm really surprised why the Western media even cares about North Korea and it's leader's death. The coverage has been wall-to-wall.

If (I don't know) Silvio Berlusconi died tomorrow, I don't think it would get this much coverage.

Berlusconi doesn't have atomizing powers and five million hostages within chemical gas artillary range.

The notion that North Korea would ever seriously attack the South in this day and age is completely overblown . . . . but they are dangerous in the trouble they cause everywhere else through their various criminal and political games and the fact their inevitable collapse will probably be catastrophic economically for the South, an important global economy.

Cowperson

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by hulkrogan

Personally I find it insanely fascinating. In an age where I can hop on google maps and check out what almost anyone's street looks like, the fact there is a country that very few outsiders have actually seen besides the parts dressed up to show visitors is such a strange concept. I love all of the posts of NK photos.

In North America we've seen cults in a small format, North Korea is the ultimate social experiment in mass indoctrination, from their ceremonies, to classes for children that teach them how to smile, to the cut off of World Wide Media.

[Rerun]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

I'm really surprised why the Western media even cares about North Korea and it's leader's death. The coverage has been wall-to-wall.

If (I don't know) Silvio Berlusconi died tomorrow, I don't think it would get this much coverage.

Silvio Berlusconi ? Who the ###### is he?

Don't worry. I know now after googling his name. But still... am I in the minority here about not knowing who Silvio Berlusconi is?

[Cowperson]

Originally Posted by Rerun

Silvio Berlusconi ? Who the ###### is he?

Don't worry. I know now after googling his name. But still... am I in the minority here about not knowing who Silvio Berlusconi is?

You should know him for no other reasons than the hordes of women he has orgies with and maybe for saying, as the Italian Prime Minister just after 9/11, that western civilization was superior to Islamic civilization.

Cowperson

[Rerun]

Originally Posted by Cowperson

You should know him for no other reasons than the hordes of women he has orgies with

More than Charlie Sheen?

Originally Posted by Cowperson

and maybe for saying, as the Italian Prime Minister just after 9/11, that western civilization was superior to Islamic civilization.

Cowperson

Didn't we all say that?

[Playfair]

North Korean farmers work in a field along a highway outside the eastern coastal city of Wonsan, North Korea.
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/201..._part_iii.html