Kim Jong Il, North Korea’s Dictator, Dead at 70

[HURAKAN]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-1 ... -says.html

Kim Jong Il, the second-generation North Korean dictator who defied global condemnation to build nuclear weapons while his people starved, has died, Yonhap News reported. He was 70.
The news came in a radio broadcast at noon local time, Yonhap reported, citing North Korea’s official media. Kim probably had a stroke in August 2008 and may have also contracted pancreatic cancer, according to South Korean news reports.
The son of Kim Il Sung, North Korea’s founder, Kim was a chain-smoking recluse who ruled for 17 years after coming to power in July 1994 and resisted opening up to the outside world in order to protect his regime. The potential succession of his little-known third son, Kim Jong Un, threatens to trigger a dangerous period for the Korean peninsula, where 1.7 million troops from the two Koreas and the U.S. square off every day.
“Kim Jong Il inherited a genius for playing the weak hand and by keeping the major powers nervous, continuing his father’s tradition of turning Korea’s history of subservience on its head,” said Michael Breen, the Seoul-based author of “Kim Jong Il: North Korea’s Dear Leader,” a biography. “We have entered an uncertain moment with North Korea.”
Lampooned by foreign cartoonists and filmmakers for his weight, his zippered jumpsuits, his aviator sunglasses and his bouffant hairdo, Kim cut a more serious figure in his rare dealings with world leaders outside the Communist bloc.
Words for Albright
“If there’s no confrontation, there’s no significance to weapons,” he told Madeleine Albright, then U.S. secretary of state, in a 2000 meeting in Pyongyang.
Those words took on greater significance in 2009 as Kim defied threats of United Nations sanctions to test a second nuclear device and a ballistic missile, technically capable of striking Alaska.
The following year North Korea lashed out militarily, prompting stern warnings from the U.S. and South Korea. An international investigation blamed Kim’s regime for the March 2010 sinking of the South Korean naval vessel Cheonan that killed 46 sailors.
Eight months later North Korea shelled a South Korean island, killing two soldiers, two civilians and setting homes ablaze. The act followed reports by an American scientist that the country had made “stunning” advances to its uranium- enrichment program.

[RL3AO]

This world has lost the greatest golfer to ever live.


Hopefully some general doesn't make some power move now.

[expat2carib]

Actually he was 69. Same age that Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi died.

[Cyclenall]

Kimmy made us all laugh and now he is gone . All this North Korean footage is hilarious, all those people sobbing uncontrollably over a crazy looking guy who doesn't seem very happy, leaves his fellow people starving while developing a powerful military, and rules over the most undemocratic country on the planet. As parades full of dancing Koreans show off their 8 hour-a-day for a year work with a great chunk of the military coming through, Kim just glances over the railing of his fortress towards the show and shrugs; walking back away with no expression. Sounds like a sob story to me!

Actually he was 69. Same age that Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi died.

So Saddam is also included. Something about 69 and dictators that go together.

[vbhoutex]

Kimmy made us all laugh and now he is gone . All this North Korean footage is hilarious, all those people sobbing uncontrollably over a crazy looking guy who doesn't seem very happy, leaves his fellow people starving while developing a powerful military, and rules over the most undemocratic country on the planet. As parades full of dancing Koreans show off their 8 hour-a-day for a year work with a great chunk of the military coming through, Kim just glances over the railing of his fortress towards the show and shrugs; walking back away with no expression. Sounds like a sob story to me!

Actually he was 69. Same age that Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi died.

So Saddam is also included. Something about 69 and dictators that go together.

So how old is Achwhateverheisjad in Iran? Sorry for the ot.

[HurricaneBill]

So how old is Achwhateverheisjad in Iran? Sorry for the ot.

He's not the overall ruler of Iran. The Grand Ayatollah is.

[Stephanie]

Actually he was 69. Same age that Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi died.

Interesting.

[hurricane25]

Kim jong ill is currently burning in hell for all the pain he has caused his people. One of the sicking dictators to ever live.

[Stephanie]

Kimmy made us all laugh and now he is gone . All this North Korean footage is hilarious, all those people sobbing uncontrollably over a crazy looking guy who doesn't seem very happy, leaves his fellow people starving while developing a powerful military, and rules over the most undemocratic country on the planet. As parades full of dancing Koreans show off their 8 hour-a-day for a year work with a great chunk of the military coming through, Kim just glances over the railing of his fortress towards the show and shrugs; walking back away with no expression. Sounds like a sob story to me!

Two videos I saw showed a group of people dropping to their knees simultaneaously and weeping as he lie in state and then during the funeral procession where another group all looked like they were sobbing and shaking the sameway uncontrollably. SOOOOO staged it's pathetic.

[HURAKAN]

Coming from a country where all public demostrations supporting the regimen are staged, I can assure everyone that those people crying were staged by the government. All demonstrations in Cuba during Fidel Castro's regime were staged, I remember that you either had to go to march or you didn't get paid for the day's work, and I lived in the countryside. I imagine people in Havana were even more forced to march because they were in the capital.