North Korea - N.Korean Cheerleaders Banished to Camps

Chosun Ilbo (South Korea) ^ | February 16, 2006

[HAL9000]

Women who caught South Korea's attention with their charm and cheerleading antics when they accompanied the North Korean athletes to the Busan Asian Games have ended up in North Korean detention camps. Lee Myeong-ho, a former inmate of the Daeheung concentration camp in South Hamgyeong Province who recently escaped to China, said “21 beautiful women” were detained at the camp since the end of last year. “Later I found out that they were the cheerleading team that had gone to South Korea,” he said.

Lee said since inmates are forbidden to talk to one another, he could not find out for sure what mistake they had made, but the rumor was that they had broken their promise to North Korean security services not to disclose what they had seen in South Korea.

Another defector explained the cheerleaders are picked among university students, propaganda squad members and music school students from good families. Before they were sent to South Korea, they had to sign a pledge bearing their 10 fingerprints that says if they are going to an enemy country -- Pyongyang’s epithet for the South -- they must fight as soldiers of leader Kim Jong-il and never talk about what they have seen or heard in South Korea once they return. They agree to accept punishment if they break the promise.

The defector said the Daeheung camp usually houses those convicted of economic crimes with a political dimension but has recently also become a camp for political dissidents. The camp, known as one of the worst in North Korea, is located in a mining area high in ragged mountains where there is hardly any vegetation.

North Korea first sent 270 cheerleaders to the Busan Asian Games in September 2002. For the 2003 Summer Universiad in Daegu it was 306, and at the 2005 Asian Athletics Championship in Incheon there were 124.

[JohnnyZ]

1. Pictures

2. We need to rescue these gals

3. But make sure they leave the cabbage, garlic, and sesame seeds behind

[rawcatslyentist]

I wonder when Koffi will call for the release of the Cheerleader hostages? Or will Koffi call for the conversion of Gitmo into a Cheerleader holding facility!

Seven Dead Monkeys Page O Tunes

[Husker24]

Isnt there anyone in North Korea with the balls to blow this F***ing retards head off?

[TheSpy]

I gotta hand it to him.

[Richard Kimball]

Balls and no guns loses against guns. They've got no guns.

[HAL9000]

A few photos on this thread.

[carumba]

They are eating tree leaves, gnawing wormwood, and swallowing oppression

[mkjessup]

Even without guns, if a strong burly North Korean patriot (a REAL patriot) got fed up enough with Kim Jong ILL and his insane tyranny, all it would take is to feign affection for the 'Dear Leader' long enough to get him in an embrace, and then quickly get his hands and arms into position, and

*SNAP*

Presto, change-o, Kim Jong ILL turns into Kim Jong DEAD.

(attention grim reaper demons from hell? clean up on cosmic aisle "P" for "Pyongyang"!)

[Roy Tucker]

Well, I guess they'll have a lot of time to work on their routines.

Give me a K! Give me an I! Gimme an M! What's that spell?

[Cheburashka]

Of course it is very hard to get close to any dictator, they all have security to weed out the people of insufficient faith. You would have to do an excellent job of faking it, and then...
You realize that if you fail, and often even if you succeed, your family probably dies.
Example: Von Stauffenburg. Every male relative 15 or over was executed, every female member 15 or over went to concentration camps, every member under 15 was adopted out into Nazi sympathetic families. The only saving grace was that the Third Reich was less than a year from destruction.
I haven't even mentioned that, of course, you die as well. Presumably, you have already accepted that probability.
How much do you have to love your country to put that on your family?

[mkjessup]

“Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” - John 15:13

[isom35]

sounds like an R-rated drive-in movie from the 70s.

[Eighth Street]

Yeah but they have Free Health Care.

[Cheburashka]

“Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” - John 15:13
---
That may be true, but it's cold comfort when, the night before you will make your attempt, you're bouncing your three-year-old daughter on your knee and thinking "What will her life be like starting the the day after tomorrow?"
If you're a parent you know what I'm talking about, if you're not, wait until you are, maybe then you will see how hard it would be to sacrifice your child's life.
As an added bonus, consider that Kim Jong-il and his potential successors probably consider Hitler a wimp, as demonstrated by the fact that Hitler lasted only 12 years and a few months, as opposed to the 60 plus years of Kim and his father. So don't expect them to be as merciful as Hitler.

[mkjessup]

Your point is well taken, however if one believes in eternal life, and the perfect Justice that will one day be handed down by a perfect Judge (Judge Jesus), what painful things happen in this temporal life are simply that: temporal. Our willingness to sacrifice all (meaning the lives and the comfort of our families if need be) is what Jesus meant when He spoke of "losing one's life in order to save it" (paraphrased).

I don't take what you are saying lightly, not at all. But braver men than I have chosen to do the right thing, knowing that it would mean hardship, disgrace and probably early death for their surviving families, I think specifically of the late Soviet Colonel Oleg Penkovsky, who chose to betray his Soviet masters, risking all, in order to help the West prevail in the Cold War. He knew the risks, and regardless of any material considerations that may have been made to him by MI6 and/or the CIA, his actions were those of a genuine patriot.

Whether such men exist in North Korea and will rise to the occasion if given a chance to dispatch KJL to his eternal destination, remains to be seen. I suspect that if such an event took place, that after the head of the octopus was decapitated, you would see the tentacles writhing helplessly, just my optimistic opinion.

[AmericanInTokyo]

RESURRECTION BUMP!!