North Korea executes official for blunder

Reuters via Yahoo! ^ | Thu Mar 18 | Jack Kim

[Brilliant]

North Korea has executed a ruling party official blamed for a botched currency reform, in a desperate attempt to quell public unrest...

The execution by firing squad in Pyongyang last week of Pak Nam-ki, Labour Party chief for planned economy, was for the crime of "a son of a bourgeois conspiring to infiltrate the ranks of revolutionaries to destroy the national economy..."

The unrest, triggered by sharp price increases in the marketplace amid confusion caused by the late November currency revaluation, forced the North to take some steps to roll back its effect.

Analysts said that showed the North was under intense pressure to relieve problems that could upset the stability of the leadership...

Kim is believed to be in poor health, which means there is a rush to prepare one of his sons for succession, South Korean officials and analysts said.

The last straw for Pak's fate was the perception the policy blunder was going to affect the succession process, Yonhap said.

South Korea's defense minister said on Wednesday that Kim was struggling to keep the North under control as he tried to ensure the succession of power to his youngest son. But there is public unrest in the aftermath of the currency measure, which built on prevalent general social discontent.

The U.N. sanctions were aimed at cutting into the North's illicit arms trade. They also increased the apprehension of already skittish investors about doing business with the mercurial state.

The North's abrupt currency move was aimed at cutting into the power of a burgeoning merchant class. But it destabilized the North's won currency, sparked rare social unrest and slowed the flow of consumer goods from China to a trickle, reports said.

[Brilliant]

We should have a crime like that on our books. I can think of several government employees and politicians who could be prosecuted.

[muawiyah]

That's what struck me the most ~ a crime that would apply to Raines, Frank, Pelosi, Reid, Obama, ...... "the crime of "a son of a bourgeois conspiring to infiltrate the ranks of revolutionaries to destroy the national economy..."

Make note of that for use this coming January as the Democrats are marched out to the detention facility.

[hinckley buzzard]

Eggsackly. One thing I always respected about the Soviets was their willingness to use capital punishment for massive official white collar crime and corruption. In a just society, Tim Geithner, a classic "son of a bourgeois", should be making out his will....

[xrmusn]

I can imagine he wasn’t laying around a jail cell for 10 years exhausting his appeals and the states coffers....

[Delta 21]

ZERO TOLERANCE for Government screw-ups!!

Can we get that law passed here?

[muawiyah]

This morning there was a reference to a recent USPS classification case where the Postmaster was wrong and was reversed by (more than likely) a manager at USPS headquarters responsible for Mail Classification.

I used to work there.

Anyway, I was thinking how interesting it would be to be able to make such decisions and then the Army would come and take the Postmaster out to be shot!

Not that I recommend doing that here, but every government agency has an office responsible for all the stuff that's not assigned to anywhere else in the agency ~ and a serious penalty for crossing them like that could alter the way bureaucrats do their jobs.

[jwparkerjr]

Talk about a no-win situation! There's nothing anyone at any level can do to make that basket case of an economy not pollute and eventually destroy everything that comes in contact with it.

[GAB-1955]

I can’t believe Americans are cheering the actions of a totalitarian Communist dictatorship. They shot him not for incompetence - what he did - but because of who he was.

Would you support shooting Jews because of who they were? Or Mexicans? Or Irish?

[craigster_nc]

North Korea has executed a ruling party official blamed for a botched currency reform

I wish our corrupt politicians would be susceptible to this for their high crimes and treason.

[daniel1212]

The issue is not laws punishing incompetence, which Hitler and Stalin, etc., had also, but who defines incompetence. The problem is Kim Jong il, and the spiritual issues behind him.

[Revolting cat!]

the crime of "a son of a bourgeois conspiring to infiltrate the ranks of revolutionaries to destroy the national economy..."

I'm all for it. Send them Obambi!

[Revolting cat!]

good ideer, let’s get started.

[Revolting cat!]

NOLTH KOLEAN BUMP!

[Oceander]

Sometimes you have to be pragmatic enough to adopt a good idea, no matter how bad the source of that idea is. Even a stopped clock tells the correct time twice a day (once a day if you've got a 24-hr/mil. time clock).

Sounds like their might be something useful here - talk about the ultimate in accountability for government officials. If we had even a tenth of that sort of accountability, Obastard would have confined himself to empty, rhetorical platitudes, and we wouldn't be in the midst of a full-blown constitutional crisis right now.

[ravenwolf]

The execution by firing squad in Pyongyang last week of Pak Nam-ki, Labour Party chief for planned economy, was for the crime of “a son of a bourgeois conspiring to infiltrate the ranks of revolutionaries to destroy the national economy..

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I think that would bring government down to a more realistic size, but if they were all caught, we might not have any government at all. which would still be an improvement.

[ravenwolf]

I can’t believe Americans are cheering the actions of a totalitarian Communist dictatorship. They shot him not for incompetence - what he did - but because of who he was.

---

Yes, it would be wrong, if done for the reason you say,but if we were to do that here in this country for what they said the guy was accused of, then we would have no government left, and the president would be the first to go.

As the saying goes, you are who your friends are.

[ravenwolf]

Eggsackly. One thing I always respected about the Soviets was their willingness to use capital punishment for massive official white collar crime and corruption. In a just society,

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Well, the problem is in putting (socialism) with (Just society), there is nothing just about socialism unless you are putting some one under socialism as a punishment.

[K-oneTexas]

Sounds like ‘high crimes and misdemeanors’ are political suicide.