Kim Jong-il is dead [Main Thread]

[TigerLikesRooster]

Kim Jong-il is dead

[mkjessup]

Oops, my text got dropped for some reason, argh ...

The ‘official’ NorK website was offline over the past 24 hours (could be due to excessive activity), but it now appears to be back up, I find it curious there is no mention of the Dear Leader’s Departure, not even discount coupons on North Korean United Railways.

[AmericanInTokyo]

Freeper Direct Information Gather Report: 9:24 a.m. local Tuesday in Tokyo/Pyongyang -- 7:24 p.m. Eastern Monday:

The following locations were accessed by international telephone just now (one of the popular low cost service options, generally this is not possible to my knowledge from South Korea or the USA:

KCNA News Pyongyang (the official DPRK News Agency main numbers (2 were used): "Reorder" sound, i.e. a fast busy signal on several attempts, calls would not go through

Pyongyang Hotel: No connection, call dropped out upon going through.

Sisan Hotel: Phone rang and rang and rang, nobody picked up (this at after 9 a.m. local on a weekday).

Koryo Hotel: (BINGO!): Call went through, female front desk clerk answered in Korean" Good morning, this is Koryo Hotel." Voice was normal, even chirpy, not a hint of solace or grief. Did not engage in conversation.

Taeddongang Hotel: Call would not go through.

So it is a mixed bag.

Calls to official agences are being blocked from the outside or are simply flooded. Calls to hotels, where foreigners stay, in some cases make it through or at least reach a ringing number.

Just food for thought as to how "hermetically sealed" the Hermit Kingdom is this a.m.....

AiT

[AmericanInTokyo]

One mainline official DPRK newsite is the Chosun Shinpo, in Korean, out of Tokyo. That is fully functional, and in Korean. One can use automatic translation if you want. They have several articles, including about the funeral. They have photos of obligatory sobbing serfs at the foot of these huge, golden idolotrous statues in Pyongyang, pouring out their grief over the demise of the Short Donged One.

[AmericanInTokyo]

Upstanding, privileged, inner circle Korean Workers Party members in Pyongyang (a city where only loyal communists can live), judging by the good quality of clothes, the health of the little girls (Young Communist Pioneers). It may be sincere if they personally knew the Chia Pet, or it could be faked and staged. It could be a comination of some level of grief, but then hyped to the next level through acting, based on seeing whatis going around oneself (mass psychosis) and also knowing what the penalty would be for not showing saddness and dispondency.

[Revolting cat!]

(a city where only loyal communists can live)

That pretty much explains it.

[AmericanInTokyo]

I suspect millions of people worldwide might be trying to access it online at this time, and have just simply crashed it, of course they could have it down on their side, to. Everything is murky and anyone who claims to have the key is not telling the whole truth. Everyone operates to some extent in the dark while trying to piece together the enigma of North Korea.

What I do is get a legitimate Pyongyang working telephone number, then do a few digits off on the end, and call, and see if if goes through and who picks it up. An average North Korean citizen in the past has been snagged this way. One even spoke a small amount of English but was probably not too happy about talking with an "outsider" which is not sanctioned outside of official DPRK tourist guides/watchers, government spokespeople, hotel workers, etc. In fact, one can get in somewhat of trouble. That is why I am a bit hesitant to draw an average Pyongyangite into a discussion has it could have negative reprecussions for them. Calling the hotels and news stations will generally not get anybody in trouble. We have to be sensitive to the brutal, paranoid system these people are under, and how they will send someone to a Auschwitz death camp in the snap of a finger with no trial or reason.... Later we will see if Kim Il Sung University picks up, such as in the English language department.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Good fieldwork as usual. I guess they are keen to receive reservations from foreigners after the mourning is over. They need every penny they can earn.

[TigerLikesRooster]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/ap-interview-french-doctor-who-helped-kim-jong-il-out-of-2008-coma-says-death-was-nearing/2011/12/19/gIQA7r4M4O_story.html

AP Interview: French doctor says he treated comatose Kim Jong Il in 2008, confirms stroke

By Associated Press,

PARIS — A French neurosurgeon confirmed Monday that Kim Jong Il had a debilitating stroke in 2008, and described secretly treating the reclusive dictator while the North Korean public and world remained unaware of his condition.

Dr. Francois-Xavier Roux — speaking to The Associated Press on Monday — described Kim’s concerns for his future, the challenge of working under constant surveillance, and Korean doctors’ fears of making final decisions about how to save their supreme leader.

North Korean state media announced Monday that Kim had died Saturday at age 69.

Roux, the chief of neurosurgery at Sainte Anne Hospital in Paris, said he was urgently flown to North Korea in August 2008 to examine Kim who was unconscious and “in a bad way” and in intensive care at Pyongyang’s Red Cross Hospital, in the communist nation’s capital.

/snip

[AmericanInTokyo]

They may even take hotel reservations now in Pyongyang—although I am sure this must be through an agent and in no way can be done individually—but then say, “you cannot come to the Republic until such and such a day” (maybe more like April or May. Heck what are they going to do NOW on the 100th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il Sung coming up in February is it? This was supposed to be some big blow out and Kim Jong Eun announced as God-King at that time. Boy this really blew their plans to smithereens...unless of course it was an executive action against Kim from within, which I personally think was still a possibility. I should add, that even though the South Korean works in the North Korean plant across the DMZ and near Kaesong yesterday were told to go home (back across the border to ROK) at 3 p.m., they were told to report back up to work today as normal. The eyewitnesses said nothing was particularly out of the ordinary. I find that odd that their North Korean subordinates were not all besides themselves and could not concentrate on work, akin to when John Kennedy died in the USA, but are just the normal worker bees. Again, I think official Radio and TV are just hyping this for the mass psychosis effect to keep the klan together and keep factions from developing. My fear is that they may try to hype up the external enemy, be it South Korean fishing boats, or South Korean/US troops, in order to fortify things internally. Or launch some scuds into Sea of Japan when things get warmer.

[AmericanInTokyo]

You have Freepmail coming, something very provocative (which you may have already seen) concerning the circumstances of days leading up to his death.

Also, this paper from the major Government/KWP Press Organ, Rodong Shinmun, a few days ago, shows the last days of Chia Pet going to North Korea's ONLY supermarket. Whoopdeedoo! Oh, the triumphs of socialism. (Here that Obama??!)

[TigerLikesRooster]

N. Koreans these days will do anything to secure basic necessities. They don't want to starve or freeze to death. Survive for another days is a hard work. Grieving for Chia Head is way down in their priority list.

This will further aggravate the likes of Kim Jong-eun. Serfs won't pay attention to them enough, making them slowly irrelevant. This is what resistance is like in N. Korea in recent days. People are shutting down, and watch S. Korean soaps, do drug among themselves, and won't care what the regime say, unless knife is drawn to their throat.

This may change into active resistance at some point.

[AmericanInTokyo]

Excuse the many typos and spelling errors from the land of AiT recently. They reflect badly upon my work I know, but I am rushing these days with lots of reports for FR, and really at top speed.

[AmericanInTokyo]

The contradictory irony in DPRK is in the most popular underground contraband items these days desired greatly by the bored and mentally-checked out NK general populace (which can get one executed for trafficking: Christian Bibles, and, PORNO.)

[Mr. K]

seperated at birth?

[rdl6989]

Thank you for your reporting.

[Revolting cat!]

I've got dibs on Dear Leader's Trabie limo!

[AmericanInTokyo]

Tiger, do you accept the account that he kicked the bucket on a train working so "hard for the service of the people that his heart gave out"? I mean, shit, if they lied about the circumstances of his birth and location (it was actually in Russia and he was known as "Yura" as a kid, not born anywhere near the myth they have created), why would they not lie about the location, time and circumstances of his demise? What I am getting at is, like Rahm Emmanuel, never let a crisis go to waste, and they could have theoretically put him on that phantom train in the process of vigorous duties on behalf of the People, Party and Army, when the fact is the matter if the Chia Pet was not outright "offed", he could have just as easily demised in a comfy Pyongyang Hospital with all the accountrements including foreign doctors sworn to secrecy, such as in the Pyongyang Red Cross hotel or perhaps in his bunker or at a personal villa. The DPRK Lying Machine, like producing a meeting, could have merely placed him figuratively speaking on the g-damned official train. My take. Yours? Maybe when the whole place collapses, or we get some high level defectors, we will truly know how he died and where. That is why we now read reports of scurrying activity of an emergency of some sort on the PREVIOUS DAY, Friday, December 16th in Pyongyang, according to rumors filtering out, that shows something was up with his health and it might not have been as sudden nor dramatic as they make it out to be. What is sure is they will lie through their frikkin teeth and make anything up (like these Japanese abductees who are still alive up there, but whom they said died in accidents or suicides years ago)...... This is a different animal up there, they dont play by normal rules of humanity and honesty.

[x]

Does Kim Jong III take over, or do they go straight to Kim Jong IV?

[TigerLikesRooster]

Yes, I fail to include porno. Outside daily repression, N. Korea is an exceedingly boring place. Food tastes likes crap, music sucks, and no fun song to sing. No joy in life. No wonder contraband entertainment items (except bibles) are in such a great demand.

[jhpigott]

You guys notice anything about his appearance in his last public photos? He doesn’t appear to be in any worse shape than we’ve seen him in since the stroke in 08’