The video can be seen at the link URL above, and by then hitting the
on that page,
or here (cut and paste, view and go to that spot on the page, below Kim's photo, and view) at 300k speed:
The video can be seen at the link URL above, and by then hitting the
on that page,
or here (cut and paste, view and go to that spot on the page, below Kim's photo, and view) at 300k speed:
Considering there's enough stock footage of 'Kim Jong Il inspecting military unit' or 'Kim Jong Il visits factory' to make it seem like he's around for the next 300 years, this means nothing.
It's a curious move, though, taking down some public pictures of the Glorious Leader, then removing the honoric title itself. When I was in China a college student pointed out that the government backed away from 'communist talk' about %5 a year, distancing themselves from the image of a hardline communist party. This has been going on for over a decade, and they're still not free of it. If this is North Korea's way of trying to slowly wean the people off of Kim Jong Il worship, in a similiar fashion as China is phasing out communism, I think they're dreaming.
The Chinese are merely postponing the inevitible breakup of the central government, and using gradual reform to extend their grip on power. North Korea may hope to do the same, but it's just not a viable option for them.
1) Chinese influence : no money unless Great Leader becomes not-so-great leader.
2) Untreated syphillis. Could explain the sudden death of his "consort".
3) Slow-motion coup.
Back when Stalin died, the Soviets kept it a secret for several days. We had a lot of CIA over there, so we were able to figure it out but it still took 3 or 4 days. It wouldn't surprise me at all if it took a long time for the North Koreans to admit Kim was dead. They know that we will use any excuse to exert pressure, and I've long thought that the Chinese would prefer to have him out.
I watched. But I still dont "get it."
"He's dead, Jim."
I wonder if he has perhaps fallen apart after the death of his concubine.
I used to listen to short-wave broadcasts from North Korea when I lived in NE China. Five times a day they had a 15-minute English broadcast which I stumbled upon by accident a few times. After about 1993 I never was able to find them, but never knew why.
Damn I thought Little Kim drinking himself to the death what I understand
Here's one theory--it leaves out the anti-Kim flyers though and I don't think it's right. http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBN1T6CO1E.html
On a different thread someone said that pictures of the Dear Leader are being taken down in some locations.
PErhaps if he is still in power, people are defacing his picture and so they have to take it down.
He really reminds me of a Jerry Lewis type character.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apasia_story.asp?category=1104&slug=NKorea%20Kim's%20Cult
Wednesday, November 17, 2004 · Last updated 7:06 p.m. PT
N. Korea pulls Kim images from buildings
By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korean officials have removed portraits of leader Kim Jong Il from some public buildings, and North Korea's state-run media have reportedly dropped his honorific title "Dear Leader." The changes are dramatic in a reclusive nation that has clung to totalitarian rule for more than half a century.
Analysts speculated on Thursday that Kim may have ordered the measures himself to downplay his state-sponsored personality cult, and the changes don't necessarily reflect an overhaul of the leadership.
Tokyo-based Radiopress, which monitors North Korean media, said the communist regime had toned down the titles it bestows on Kim, who is locked in a dispute with the United States and its allies over Pyongyang's development of nuclear weapons.
Radiopress said the North's Korean Central News Agency and the Korean Central Broadcast referred to Kim not as "Dear Leader," but as "general secretary of the Worker's Party of Korea," or "chairman of the DPRK National Defense Commission and supreme commander of the Korean People's Army."
Some experts believe Kim is downplaying the official adulation in order to remove himself as a target for public discontent in his impoverished country. Kim has also made erratic efforts to modernize North Korea's antiquated economy, and the changes could be part of a similar, if extremely limited, campaign in the political arena.
Foreign diplomats reported the removal of portraits of Kim this week, an unusual development because the dictator is the focus of an all-encompassing cult of personality that he inherited from his father and late national founder, Kim Il Sung.
"We believe the change was made at his will to soften his image as a leader of a personality cult, although it is hard to determine what his real intentions are," said Radiopress editor Shinya Kato. "But we do not believe it was a sign of coup or related to his loss of power."
North Korea is one of the most tightly controlled countries in the world, and defectors who have fled hunger and oppression there have spoken of systematic human rights abuses. Still, Kim Jong Il has made periodic efforts to reach out to other countries, holding a 2000 summit with South Korea, visiting China and Russia and taking small steps toward reform of his devastated economy.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a South Korean government official told the South's Yonhap news agency that there were no "unusual signs at all" in North Korea's power structure.
The official noted that while portraits of Kim Jong Il have been taken down, North Korean television is still showing scenes of public places in which portraits of the leader are hanging. He also noted that North Korean media had retained some of Kim's titles, an indication that he likely remained in power.
---
http://www.wpherald.com/Asia_Pacific/storyview.php?StoryID=20041117-103432-5535r
Analysis: Cult worship waning in N.Korea?
By Jong-Heon Lee
UPI Correspondent
Published November 17, 2004
SEOUL -- The key to the puzzle of North Korea's survival largely lies with one man, Kim Jong Il, the secretive leader of the world's only Stalinist state.
Is he in firm charge of the military? Is he healthy enough to run the country? Are the people loyal to him? Does North Korea have political opponents or dissidents?
There have been rumored that Kim was overwhelmed by the country's 1.1-million-strong army and struggled with them for supreme power. His disappearance from public view, led to speculation about the 62-year-old leader's heath; Kim reportedly suffers from diabetes, heart illness and a liver ailment.
Anti-Kim leaflets are increasing, indicating a crack in the North's watertight system and weakening loyalty, say intelligence sources and defectors. Speculation about the fate of the "Dear Leader" is growing again this week after news reports that some of his portraits were removed from public buildings in North Korea.
If true, analysts say, it indicates the country is undergoing "tremendous" political change. The portraits are part of the cult worship that has helped North Korea survive the global collapse of communism and political and economic turmoil.
Russia's ITAR-TASS news agency reported Tuesday that Kim's portraits were taken down from public places where they hung next to his father and national founder, Kim Il Sung. It quoted an unidentified foreign diplomat as saying guests invited to official receptions in Pyongyang only saw portraits of the senior Kim, who died 10 years ago.
"Only a light rectangular spot on the yellow whitewashed wall and a nail have remained in the place where the second (Kim Jong Il's) portrait used to be," the diplomat was quoted as saying.
Other international news outlet also quoted diplomats based in Pyongyang as saying Kim's portrait had disappeared from many public, saying they had been gone since late August or early September.
Many places in North Korea are off-limits to foreigners, but it is certain Kim's portrait has been removed from the Grand People's Cultural Palace, a main official building in central Pyongyang.
An ethnic Korean businessman overseas who traveled to Pyongyang last month also said he heard similar stories, a South Korean government official said.
"We are not yet able to confirm the reports," the official told the United Press International. "But there are no notable signs that Kim is in poor health, or other problems in his status."
The North's sate-run Korean Central News Agency reported Wednesday Kim made an "on-spot" guidance tour of an army unit, but it did not say when the leader visited the People Army Unit No. 754.
David Zweig, a North Korea specialist at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, told journalists the move could be an attempt to do away with the cult of personality that surrounds Kim, or it could be a sign of opposition. Security checks of vehicles and passengers have recently been strengthened, Chinese diplomatic sources said.
Officials and analysts in Seoul, however, rule out a major power struggle in North Korea. They said the portraits may be replaced with new ones or North Korea would tone the cult of personality.
"There would be any perceived signs in the military if there are any moves against Kim's rule," said Ryu Ho-yol, a North Korea specialist at Korea University. "If the removal of Kim's portraits is true, it is very, very important sign in North Korea's political system because the his portrait is a symbol of cult worship for him."
South Koreans were surprised in August last year when they saw the North's cheer squad for an international sports event in the South cry when a banner bearing the image of Kim Jong Il was neglected. Hundreds of cheerleaders hopped out from their buses and retrieved from the roadside the banner that bore the image of Kim and former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung shaking hands during their summit in 2000.
"How can the banners of general (Kim Jong Il) be placed in a place like this?" they asked.
When an explosion killed hundreds of North Koreans in a border city with China in April, Pyongyang's official media praised the "heroic deaths" of people who rushed into collapsing or burning buildings to save Kim's "treasured" portraits.
Portraits of Kim and his father are mandatory fixtures in every home, office, public buildings and factory in the country. All adults are required to wear lapel pins bearing images of one or both Kims. Kim is revered as a demigod in North Korea, and any affront, even spilling water on a newspaper photograph of the leader, is punished, North Korean defectors say.
Han Tae-joon, a professor at Chung-Ang University in Seoul, said Kim would not give up the practice because it has kept his troubled regime afloat.
"North Korea is a country of cult worship. Its leaders have long built a personality cult as a key strategy to boost their ruling," he said. "The cult worship for public loyalty critical both in defusing internal opposition and in either deterring foreign enemies of the reclusive country."
Perhaps he's just busy on that Kid N Play Reunion Tour.