Zero details so far so I wont even post the one sentence in the link, but North Korean State TV is said to be reporting it and State TV would never lie!
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has died, state-run TV has announced.
His death was announced in an emotional statement read out on national television.
The announcer, wearing black, said he had died on Saturday of physical and mental over-work.
The BBC's Lucy Williamson in Seoul says his death will cause huge shock waves across North Korea.
"This cult of special forces is as sensible as to form a Royal Corps of Tree Climbers and say that no soldier who does not wear its green hat with a bunch of oak leaves stuck in it should be expected to climb a tree"
— Field Marshal William Slim 1956
Overwork seems an odd thing to broadcast to the masses. I would imagine they'd make up something more... interesting.
But then again, I'm not part of the Central News Agency or whatever it's called.
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That we dying younger hiding from the police man over there
Just for breathing in the air they wanna leave me in the chair
Electric shocking body rocking beat streeting me to death"
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The most likely result is the Army-Navy assume direct power over the communist party. Its possible Kim Jong-un becomes Great Leader III but its hard to see how he'd be allowed any power.
"This cult of special forces is as sensible as to form a Royal Corps of Tree Climbers and say that no soldier who does not wear its green hat with a bunch of oak leaves stuck in it should be expected to climb a tree"
— Field Marshal William Slim 1956
Wild Card: People's Republic of China -- they've been propping up North Korea for quite a while now; because the alternative is mass starvation and destabilization of Norkland -- and they have a boarder with them that's been getting clogged with refugees for a bit now; so any mass Nork collapse would hit them just as bad as South Korea.
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RT @feitclub In all seriousness, the death of Kim Jong Il is a tragedy. He died peacefully from old age rather than at the hands of the oppressed masses.
While one can only hope that this may bring changes of some sort to North Korea, obviously the chances of that area about as great as...
Well I can't think of anything. Still, good riddance to the tyrant.
It's been one hell of a roller coaster year.
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"North Koreans to commemorate Kim Jong Il's death with a hunger strike. It began about 50 years ago."
So, I've always said that I expected North Korea to be stable as long as Kim Jong-il was alive. All bets are off now. Not sure whether his son will take power or the military will make him a figurehead. I know they were trying to build up a cult of personality around him, but I have no idea how much progress they'd made on that front.
Also it turns out today is the president of South Korea's birthday.
Here's hoping the changing of the guard gets the ball rolling on some reforms; Jong-un's fairly young and has apparently been educated abroad, so chances are he knows there are some fairly major problems with his father's policies. Or maybe the military will figure out it might be nice to have some foreign exchange and diplomatic goodwill with which to buy some modern equipment and start opening up the economy, which would be far from the worst possible outcome either.
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Replace "ginger" with "n*gger," and suddenly it become a lot less funny, doesn't it?
-- fgalkin
So the world's only fat Nork finally goes and does something worthy of praise.
I wonder if the Norks will finally get the missing link in their trinity now that their necrocracy is on the third generation of leader
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Celebrations over the death of a dictator aside, the bigger issue for me is "What's next?"
We haven't yet heard from North Korean State Media on the succession issue. If they can't have a smooth succession, there could be a lot of trouble for the region.
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I suspect that joke would be funnier if you live outside the range of the North's nuclear arsenal.
But, seriously speaking, as it stands I'm a bit worried that Son #3 / the Army/Navy / whoever is grabbing power may decide to do something "dramatic" to show the internal dissenters that they're in charge. Do we have any encouraging signs they won't act fucknuts?
Gandalf wrote:Overwork seems an odd thing to broadcast to the masses. I would imagine they'd make up something more... interesting.
But then again, I'm not part of the Central News Agency or whatever it's called.
North Korea's PR has Kim ceaselessly working for the betterment of the country and it's people. It's exactly the kind of death they would report. Kim's gone, but the rest of the regime has to maintain legitimacy.
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Zinegata wrote:I suspect that joke would be funnier if you live outside the range of the North's nuclear arsenal.
But, seriously speaking, as it stands I'm a bit worried that Son #3 / the Army/Navy / whoever is grabbing power may decide to do something "dramatic" to show the internal dissenters that they're in charge. Do we have any encouraging signs they won't act fucknuts?
Wait a second, does North Korea have a proven nuke stockpile?
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Sea Skimmer wrote:The most likely result is the Army-Navy assume direct power over the communist party. Its possible Kim Jong-un becomes Great Leader III but its hard to see how he'd be allowed any power.
You forgot about his aunt & uncle. Chances are Jong-un is going to be a proxy leader for Kim Hyong-kui and Chang Sung-taek as Sung-taek's position as Vice-Chairman of the National Defense Commission in the DPRK made him second to only Jong-il.
Last edited by Ritterin Sophia on 2011-12-19 03:11am, edited 2 times in total.
Zinegata wrote:I suspect that joke would be funnier if you live outside the range of the North's nuclear arsenal.
But, seriously speaking, as it stands I'm a bit worried that Son #3 / the Army/Navy / whoever is grabbing power may decide to do something "dramatic" to show the internal dissenters that they're in charge. Do we have any encouraging signs they won't act fucknuts?
Wait a second, does North Korea have a proven nuke stockpile?
They probably have a few crude but working devices by most estimates I've read. The bigger question is their ability to deliver the nukes. They probably can't hit Washington DC with one, but their missile tests have shown that hitting Japan or South East Asia may not be impossible for them.
Zinegata wrote:I suspect that joke would be funnier if you live outside the range of the North's nuclear arsenal.
But, seriously speaking, as it stands I'm a bit worried that Son #3 / the Army/Navy / whoever is grabbing power may decide to do something "dramatic" to show the internal dissenters that they're in charge. Do we have any encouraging signs they won't act fucknuts?
Wait a second, does North Korea have a proven nuke stockpile?
They probably have a few crude but working devices by most estimates I've read. The bigger question is their ability to deliver the nukes. They probably can't hit Washington DC with one, but their missile tests have shown that hitting Japan or South East Asia may not be impossible for them.
Thus my question can anyone confirm or deny the rumor that the named successor of Kim Jong's reported belief that he can talk to the dead and let the spirits of his dead ancestors guide his actions. Because if the next nuclear armed leader of NK believes that the voices in his head ought to be listened to I'm buying pills in case of radiation poisoning. I doubt the crazy fucker would aim for Fukuoka instead of Tokyo but I equally doubt the accuracy of North Korean missiles.
EDIT: Yes I am am being a bit facetious but honestly the prospect of ANOTHER insane person with Nukes in easy shooting range of where I am isn't particularly appealing.
-- Asuka
