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Lee Slams N.Korean Extravagance President Lee Myung-bak on Tuesday slammed North Korea's extravagant celebrations of nation founder Kim Il-sung's birthday at a time when the impoverished country seems headed for another famine. "My view is that North Korea needs to get sensible. When their people are suffering, the government spent W6 billion (US$1=W1,118) on fireworks to celebrate the birthday. How much corn could you have bought with that money?" Lee said in a meeting of 800 North American advisors to the National Unification Advisory Council. "The North Korean government also reportedly imported luxury cars from all over the world to...

Kim Il-sung's 'Awful' Advice Blamed for N.Korea's Economic Malaise The international press have been discussing the prospects of regime collapse in North Korea. Most recently Aidan Foster-Carter, a Korea expert at Leeds University, said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's economic incompetence is driving the North to a "dead end." In article for the Financial Times on Tuesday, Foster-Carter said, "In a speech in 1996, when famine was starting to bite, [Kim Jong-il] whined defensively that his late father, Kim Il-sung, had told him 'not to get involved in economic work, but just concentrate on the military and the party.'"...

North Korean who shopped for dictators goes public By VERONIKA OLEKSYN, Associated Press Writer 14 mins ago VIENNA – A North Korean colonel who spent two decades going on European shopping sprees for his country's rulers said Thursday the late dictator Kim Il Sung lived in luxury while many people struggled to survive in his impoverished communist nation. Kim Jong Ryul, who spent 16 years under cover in Austria, also described how the "great leader" and his son and successor Kim Jong Il spent millions pampering and protecting themselves with Western goods — everything from luxury cars, carpets and exotic...

MUGABE'S MODEL: NORTH KOREA'S 'GREAT LEADER" RW Johnson Visitors to the offices of high-ranking officials in Robert Mugabe's beleaguered government in recent weeks have noticed the same book open for study: Juche ! The Speeches and Writings of Kim Il Sung. "Some may actually believe this stuff but it's more that they want to understand where the President is coming from," one insider told me. For it appears that those who have become anxious about Mugabe's Canute-like attempt to order inflation of 7,000 per cent to be halved and to subordinate the economy in general to his political will, is...

North Korea in the midst of a mysterious building boom Who's paying for the major face lift underway in Pyongyang? The impoverished nation says it is, but analysts are skeptical. By Barbara Demick Los Angeles Times Staff Writer September 27, 2008 PYONGYANG, NORTH KOREA — It has been so long since the sound has been heard in the North Korean capital that at first it seems an illusion, a buzzing in the ear perhaps. But no, that really is a power saw, and that pounding really is a hammer at work at a construction site. By the dizzying standards of...

North Korea has created religion in its attempt to reject it PAUL ASAY Freedom News Service Monday May 7th, 2007 We all know North Korea’s Kim Jong Il is a happenin’ dude. He’s got the nukes. He’s got the hair. He’s got a basketball signed by Michael Jordan. And he’s got his very own worshippers, too. The North Korean state-sanctioned philosophy of Juche is the 10th-largest religion in the world with 19 million adherents, according to Adherents.com, a Web site that tracks world religions. It’s bigger than Judaism, bigger than Jainism, bigger than Baha’i. Sorry Tom Cruise, but it’s nearly...

/begin my translation What is inside N. Korean Textbook for First Grade in Elementary School [2006-08-25] The textbook for first grade Korean in N. Korean elementary school, published by N. Korean Educational Books Publishing in 2005(Juche 94)  Kids studying so-called "Slogan Tree." (my note: N. Koreans are taught that Kim Il-sung carved trees all over the country in order to encourage people to rise up against Japanese oppression. It is a sheer fabrication cooked up for their propaganda.) The text says, "Elder sister tells us one at a time. She tells us, while pointing at a Slogan Tree." The slogan on the tree says, "Long...

CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuela President Hugo Chavez said he could seek "indefinite" re-election through a referendum if the opposition boycotts upcoming presidential elections. Chavez made the remark late Friday, saying if the opposition pulls out of the Dec. 3 vote or makes false claims of electoral fraud to the Organization of American States, "I would call a national referendum to have the people decide if I can continue here indefinitely or if I have to go after six years in 2014."

/begin my summaryN. Korea: Kim Jong-il Going Underground Again? [Yonhapnews 2006-07-09] N. Korean media failed to report if Kim Jong-il showed up and paid respect at the 12th anniversary of Kim Il-sung's death. (Seoul=Yonhap News) Moon Sung-kyu = Did Kim Jong-il pay respect to his father, the late President Kim Il-sung at Kumsusan Memorial Palace on 12th anniversary of his father's death? N. Korean media reported on July 8th that top leadership of party, cabinet, and military, led by Kim Young-nam, the Chairman of Supreme People's Assembly, showed up at the Kumsusan Memorial Palace, but Kim Jong-il was not on the list of visitors. No news on his...

The important thing to keep in mind about analyses of North Korea’s behavior is William Goldman’s famous dictum about producing hits in Hollywood: nobody knows anything. Until Madeleine Albright made her journey to Pyongyang in 2000, paying court to Kim Jong-il in front of over 100,000 spectators (and thereby ratifying his status a world leader to any domestic doubters), no American official had ever been in the same room with the man who is publicly worshipped as a near-god by his people, at least when the authorities are watching (which is most of the time). By comparison, our inadequate intelligence...

[Video]Strange 'Kim Il-sung Parody Commercial'...Where does it come from?   Click the above picture to play the video            

It is hard for us Westerners to understand the deep reverence so many overseas have for this man. He was, after all, human, not a god in the eyes of even his most devout believers. But his followers regard him as a special and different kind of human being, one whose life was a story of miracles and triumphs inexplicable in ordinary mortal terms, and a man who brought enlightenment and a vision of a perfect world to all of humanity. Having created a comprehensive guide for all aspects of life for all time, his adherents venerate him with a...

Let me say, first of all, I have extended sincere condolences to the people of North Korea on behalf of the people of the United States after the death of Kim Il Sung, and I have expressed my deep appreciation to them for his leadership in enabling our two countries to resume our talks. We hope the talks will resume as appropriate. We believe it is in the interest of both countries to continue. Obviously, the people there are preoccupied with their surprise and their grief at this moment. But we have no reason to believe that they will not...

USCIRF to release "Thank you, Father Kim Il Sung": Eyewitness Accounts of Severe Violations of Freedom of Thought, Conscience and Religion in North Korea At Capitol Hill press conference with Congressional MembersFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASENovember 14, 2005Contact: Anne Johnson, Director of Communications, (202) 523-3240, ext. 27 WASHINGTON ? The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) will be joined tomorrow by Congressman Frank Wolf (R-VA) and Congressman Christopher Smith (R-NJ) for the release of the USCIRF study “Thank you, Father Kim Il Sung”:  Eyewitness Accounts of Severe Violations of Freedom of Thought, Conscience and Religion in North Korea at an on-the-record...

On the 60th anniversary of the North Korean Communist Party, Kim Jong Il wallows in a cult of personality. But not everybody is celebrating -- food is bring rationed again and not even a colorful show can remove the spotlight from the country's growing problems. Workers and students celebrate both Kim Jong Il and his late father in the Arirang Festival at Pyongyang's May Day Stadium. Zoom AP Workers and students celebrate both Kim Jong Il and his late father in the Arirang Festival at Pyongyang's May Day Stadium. In an auditorium on the Taedong River in Pyongyang, two special...

/begin my translation The Ivory Sculpture of Kim Il-sung's Birth Home [2005-07-04 11:59] The Birth Home of Kim Il-sung(the former ruler of N. Korea) Carved in Ivory: On July 1st,  the N. Korean Central TV showed 'Man-gyong-dae Home' on display at the International Friendship Museum, Hyang-san County, N. Pyong-an Province. Carved in ivory, this gift was given by Chinese Communist Party for Kim Il-sung's 65th birthday. It took a whole year for 96-man team to make it, according to the broadcast.<Yonhap (News)> /end my translation

BOOK REVIEW The Kims' North Korea Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty by Bradley K Martin Reviewed by Yoel Sano As speculation mounts that North Korea is about to conduct its first nuclear-weapons test, there has seldom been a greater urgency to know about the country and its leaders, the late Great Leader Kim Il-sung and his son and chosen successor, Dear Leader Kim Jong-il. Luckily, Bradley Martin's Under The Loving Care Of The Fatherly Leader: North Korea And The Kim Dynasty, provides most of the answers. The two Kims are the...

/begin my translation The Coming Collapse of N. Korean Regime [Analysis by Kim Young-hwan, (the author of) 'On N. Korean Democratization'] Ideology and organization greatly weakened, 80% chance of collapse in 10 years[04/08/05 19:42] A scene from Romanian uprising in '89 The prediction of N. Korean collapse was made twice already. The first was in 1989, when communist regimes in Eastern Europe went down in a series, and the second, in 1994, when (N. Korean) president Kim Il-sung died. However, these two predictions had a serious flaw. At the time, N. Korea had few internal factors to cause a collapse....

China website highlights early DPRK-China tensions China-NK relations by Michael Rank If you're a Great Leader it can feel a little uncomfortable having another Great Leader on your doorstep, and a very interesting report in Chinese highlights intense rivalry between Mao Zedong and Kim Il-sung in the 1950s and 60s. This short report says North Korea took part in “underground activities” against China's Korean minority after the Korean war in order to instill in them a “fatherland concept and ideology of the leader”, telling them their fatherland was the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and their leader was General Kim...

7th Kimilsungia Festival to Be Held Pyongyang, March 24 (KCNA) -- The 7th Kimilsungia Festival will be held in Pyongyang on the occasion of the Day of the Sun (birth anniversary of President Kim Il Sung) and the 40th anniversary of its appearance as a flower representing the sun. The festival will mark an important occasion of paying highest tribute to Kim Il Sung who performed immortal exploits for the revolutionary cause of Juche and the human cause of independence and demonstrating before the world the might of single-minded unity in Juche Korea where all the servicepersons and people are...