N. Korea: Kim Jong-il's Health 'Getting Rapidly Worse' (medevac helicopter sought)

Chosun Ilbo ^ | 06/19/09

[TigerLikesRooster]

Kim Jong-il's Health 'Getting Rapidly Worse'

The health of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is rapidly deteriorating, prompting the hasty decision to name his third son Jong-un as heir apparent, sources told the Chinese press. The Global News, a sister paper of the official People’s Daily, on Thursday quoted a foreign ambassador in Pyongyang as saying that Kim Jong-il's fragile health made the situation in North Korea "very complicated."

The envoy told the Global News that authorities in Pyongyang are keeping tight lid on information about Kim's health.

A North Korean source in Beijing said Beijing-based North Korean officials from Ponghwa Hospital, which is treating Kim's illness, are looking to import expensive medical equipment, which has become contraband since the North conducted its first nuclear test in 2006. Pyongyang is also seeking to import an emergency helicopter from overseas. "Kim seems to be in serious condition," the source added.

North Korea's nuclear test and imminent test of an intercontinental ballistic missile is an attempt to reduce the power vacuum and hand over a stable regime to Kim Jong-un, the source speculated.

Since early this year, Kim Jong-il has tripled the frequency of so-called "on-the-spot guidance" to local areas and military units across the country out of impatience to hand over power to his son before it is too late, the source added.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Suggestion for a Freeper prayer:

Chia Head, kick the bucket, kick the bucket, kick the bucket;

Chia Head, kick the bucket, kick the bucket, kick the bucket...

/humor

[TigerLikesRooster]

Ping!

[Vaduz]

Looks like a cave in to come about for north Korea.

[restornu]

Born wiki

16 February 1941 (1941-02-16) (age 68)

Vyatskoye, Khabarovsk Krai, Soviet Union
(Soviet records)

16 February 1942 (1942-02-16) (age 67)

Mt. Baekdu, Japanese Korea (North Korean records)

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Gee, I hate to wish ill health on anyone, but I can’t help myself.

Of course, this may not bode well for anyone. The grandson of the original tyrant is often even more out of touch and delusional than his father and more resented by his subjects. (”What did he ever do to deserve this opportunity?”)

[Steel Wolf]

That's funny. When I was a schoolboy in Pyongyang, I learned that General Kim Il Sung, the Eternal President, actually invented the car and the airplane and even flew to the moon once.

Surely, he should have plans for a medevac helicopter lying around somewhere.

[gov_bean_ counter]

Judging my NK’s saber rattling, the punk is as good as dead. They will need a diversion while moving in his replacement.

[Jimmy Valentine]

Do you think he is nuts enough to go for a “Gotterdamerung” type of end like Hitler? Kind of like “if I gotta, the world goes with me” type of thing?

[TigerLikesRooster]

Yeah, he is said to be viewed as “wet behind ears” among those who got wind of news about him.

[hoosiermama]

Imagine all the boys have their personal guards in place.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Gee, special forces training must be real good, if they can arrange exchange scholarship to a school in Pyongyang.:-)

[TigerLikesRooster]

Since he wants his son to have future, he won't initiate it unless everything implodes around him. Then, I don't really know. Still it is another question that his minions will carry out the order. A small number of loyalists, whose fortune is tied to him, may try to, but for others, it is an entirely different question.

It is a matter of whether committed specOps types(a kind of KGB alpha team type,) numbering a couple of thousands, take over key nuke, WMD weapons and launch them, just before Kim Jong-il regime meets a certain death.

[TigerLikesRooster]

everything implodes around him.

Means his regime is breaking up and he won't have the time to die of illness quietly but violently killed along with his successor Jong-un.

[djf]

Wasn’t there a period of time earlier this year when he went incommunicado for a while and alot of folks thought he was already dead?

Well, all it takes is a little bit of White-Out and a black magic marker to change “DEAR LEADER” to “DEAD LEADER”.

[driftless2]

Kim Jon-il is further proof that the more totalitarian a system, the nuttier (and more dangerous) will be the person running the system. The appeal of total power naturally attracts the craziest people. Can Obama be far behind? Only the constitution stops him...or does it?

[djf]

I’m kinda inclined to think genetics will not determine his successor.

Bejing will.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Of course, Beijing can potentially undo it, and install their own replacement. Still, their replacement is another prince, Jong-nam, who is reportedly busy running away from hit teams sent by his younger (half) brother Jong-un.

[hoosiermama]

Does Jong nam also have his own hit teams chasing Jong Un?

ANy chance for a civil war in NK to match the one in Iran?

[djf]

Well, whoever gets it, they better be friends with the neighbors.

Otherwise, it goes like this: Dude wakes up one morning and finds a shiny new Maserati in his driveway. Dude takes it for a drive. Dude steps on the brakes on a narrow mtn road. Dude then realizes car has been fitted with a special radio unit that shuts off the brakes if a signal comes from up there somewhere.

There’s about a million variations on the above theme, all of them delicious!

;-)

[Jimmy Valentine]

Thanks. This is going to get interesting. The "sucessor" has not had enough time to assume total control and may not have the skill set to keep things in place.

If I controlled one of the military districts, I would be quietly getting ready to rumble.