Joyful toasts and bitter memories: North Korean defectors grapple with death of Kim Jong Il

WP ^ | 12/25/11

[TigerLikesRooster]

Joyful toasts and bitter memories: North Korean defectors grapple with death of Kim Jong Il

By Associated Press, Published: December 25

SEOUL, South Korea — More than 21,000 North Koreans now live in South Korea. For many, the news of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il’s death stirred mixed emotions.

Several interviewed in Seoul by The Associated Press described a burst of joy upon hearing that Kim had died, but also a surge of unease over the fate of relatives and friends and even a shadow of homesickness.

There was celebration — one man had drinks with a friend— and hope for a better future for their homeland. For one woman, there was sadness as she envisioned little girls cramming to memorize the Kims’ feats.

South Korea is no paradise for the defectors either; facing prejudice and lacking job skills, they rarely feel welcomed by their capitalist brethren.

Here, in their own words, are what three of them had to say:

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THE PAINTER

“I felt rather calm after hearing of Kim Jong Il’s death,” said Song Byeok, 42, a painter who learned his art drawing propaganda posters in North Korea. “I thought to myself about him: ‘You, too, are human in the end.’

“It was his destiny. He couldn’t avoid it. ... He was praised like a god, but in the end, he was only a human who fell like an autumn leaf.”

Desperate for food in 2000, Song and his father tried to cross the river into China — not to defect but just to get something to eat from relatives on the Chinese side.

He still believed Kim Jong Il was a good leader.

However, when his father was swept away by the current and drowned, border guards ignored Song’s pleas to help rescue him;

[TigerLikesRooster]

There are radio broadcasting stations operated by N. Korean defectors in Seoul. They send news into N. Korea. Web site of those stations are full of cheers. They also report unending stream of text-message, phone calls from defectors and others welcoming the death of Kim Jong-il. It is better than Christmas for them.

[TigerLikesRooster]

P!

[AmericanInTokyo]

And for good reason.

Interesting how the Fat Boy at Kumsusang Mausoleum starts to tear up and sob at the foot of his deceased Dad. And yet could not give two farts about the wives, children, parents of those who sent to the bottom of the sea on the South Korean naval vessel The Cheonan, or those South Koreans shelled and ripped to bits at Yongpyeongdo island.

I thought of the aging parents of the high school girl in Japan, Megumi, kidnapped on Kim Jong il's orders....and they are getting so old. They say Megumi is dead, but I am certain she is still alive in Pyongyang and not only that, Kim Jong-il knew, and Kong Jong-Un know of her whereabouts, but deny her to be reunited with her mother and father in Western Japan before they too demise. Kim Jong-Un had many a fund drinking party with old Dad, becomes a sobbing fat tub of lard upon Chia Pet's death, but hasn't the decent heart to make any consideration for Megumi Yokota and her poor family waiting nearly 40 years now. The depths of human depravity possible. I HATE COMMUNISM.