 TTORAI! |
TTORAI! |
 TTORAI! |
Posted on 02/04/2010 6:52:23 AM PST by TigerLikesRooster
Discontent in N.Korea Turns to Anger After Currency Debacle
The fallout from North Korea's disastrous currency reform is mounting, with public discontent at skyrocketing prices reportedly growing into serious unrest in places. Radio Free Asia reported Wednesday that an anti-regime mood is growing among people who are prevented from earning a living by a crackdown on the use of foreign currency and closure of open-air markets.
Quoting sources in North Korea, the exile radio station said North Koreans now call leader Kim Jong-il simply by his name without using any honorific, which is unprecedented in the North.
One Korean Chinese told the Chosun Ilbo on telephone, "I was astonished to hear a North Korean official call Kim Jong-il a 'ttorai' (an idiot)." Before the currency reform, that same official would get angry when others disparaged Kim, he added. "Ttorai" is not common in North Korea but is now frequently used when denouncing Kim Jong-il, having become popular through South Korean TV series watched clandestinely in the North, the source said.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il (center), accompanied by senior officials including the Workers Partys Finance Director Pak Nam-gi (second from right), visits a new swimming pool at Kim Il-sung University in March last year. Pak escorted Kim on 123 so-called North Korean leader Kim Jong-il (center), accompanied by senior officials including the Workers' Party's Finance Director Pak Nam-gi (second from right), visits a new swimming pool at Kim Il-sung University in March last year. Pak escorted Kim on 123 so-called "on-the-spot guidance" tours last year but he has been dumped from the entourage since Jan. 3. /[North] Korean Central News Agency-Yonhap
Discontent at a crackdown on the nascent market economy is also reaching boiling point. RFA reported that people are posting threatening letters to the homes of security cadres in Pyongsong and Nampo in South Pyongan Province or lobbing stones through their windows.
"As the memory of the mass starvation in the mid-1990s returns, North Koreans are apparently becoming radicalized," said Lee Jo-won, a professor at ChungAng University. People who trusted the authorities and waited for food rations starved to death, while those who engaged in market activities survived, so they will not longer put up with crackdowns on markets as food prices soar and food rations are suspended. All security officers are said to have recently been supplied with live bullets and appear to be living in a state of siege.
The North Korean economy is deteriorating since the currency reform in December. Rice prices have risen 30 times from 20 won per kilogram late last year to 600 won a month later, according to sources. The black-market exchange rate soared from 30 won per U.S. dollar in early December to 530 won at the end of January.
Though the authorities have supplied quantities of new bills, North Koreans rarely use them because prices have spiraled so sharply that supply is drastically short. Threatened by the authorities that goods will be confiscated unless sold at prescribed prices, people have resorted to barter.
More and more people are also refusing to go to work because their salaries are worthless. Good Friends, an organization providing humanitarian aid to North Korea, said in a newsletter Wednesday, "Citizens in Tanchon, South Hamgyong Province, staged a group protest asking 'Will you starve us to death?'" and added, "The number of households who can afford barely one meal a day is increasing."
"To overcome the crisis, the North has to increase the supply of goods. At the moment it can rely only on China and South Korea," said Cho Young-gi, a professor at Korea University. "That's probably why Kim Jong-il's visit to China and an inter-Korean summit within the year are under discussion."
Idiot is rather a lame translation of ttorai(in Korean: 또라이.) The more accurate translation is "nutjob" or "freak." It is a S. Korean slang, and a very derogatory expression. People use it to refer to "bonafide mental case."
All security officers are said to have recently been supplied with live bullets and appear to be living in a state of siege.
Reportedly, security agents are now allowed to carry loaded gun at all times with safety off, and can shoot people on sight if they choose to.
P!
Eventually the ChiComs are going to take care of this. When Kim visits, he will have an “unfortunate accident” and the Chinese will take over the country to prevent chaos.
Don’t be so sure they can use the excuse of a crisis to make all sorts of moves. Remember “never let a crisis go to waste!”
uh oh....sudden collapse of the NorKorCom regime is not something that was on anybody’s radar screen....least alone Barry’s
TTORAI! |
TTORAI! |
TTORAI! |
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find only things evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelogus
(openly calling Kim a nutjob),<<<
Indeed one might call Kim a nutjob and a few more things.
I doubt the ChiComs want it. They have enough problems with their own peasants and don’t need tens of millions more. Both the ChiComs and South Korea have been propping them up only to avoid a mass migration into their countries should the country implode.
Pure diversion from the societal breakdown.
This really could be the end of the world's most evil regime.
CONPLAN 5029 is the US-ROK Combined Forces Command to prepare for the collapse of North Korea. The plan is reported to feature preparations by the South Korean and US forces to manage an inflow of North Korean refugees and other unusual situations if the North Korean regime collapses.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/oplan-5029.htm
The plan is reported to feature preparations by the South Korean and US forces to manage an inflow of North Korean refugees and other unusual situations if the North Korean regime collapses.<<<
With a shortage of food, the people will start taking steps to find food and safety. Or at least I would.
It’s been said to never under-estimate a people when they finally get tired of being held down and stand up and begin revolting.
The North Korean people (IMHO) seem to be so incredibly beaten down - emotionally, physically and intellectually - that I’m not convinced they have it in them to revolt.
If they do, the North Korea’s internal security forces and armed forces will put it down fast - and brutally.
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