Kim Jong Il Dead.
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RebelliousIntrovert
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How do you think this will pan out?
North Korea's longtime leader Kim Jong Il dead at 69
North Korea's longtime leader Kim Jong Il dead at 69
North Korea's longtime leader Kim Jong Il, the embodiment of the reclusive state where his cult of personality is deeply entrenched, has died, state TV reported.
He was believed to be 69.
Regarded as one of the world's most-repressive leaders, Kim Jong Il always cut a slightly bizarre figure. His diminutive stature and characteristically bouffant hair have been parodied by some in the West.
"He's a mysterious person -- I think by design," said Han S. Park, director of the Center for the Study of Global Issues at the University of Georgia and a frequent visitor to North Korea. "Mystery is a source of leverage and power. It's maintaining uncertainty."
But for the citizens of his Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Kim was the embodiment of the reclusive state, and well regarded.
His father, Kim Il Sung, founded North Korea with Soviet backing after World War II.
Kim Jong Il was just a little boy when the Korean War broke out in 1950 when the Communist North invaded the American-backed South. After the fighting ended, Kim became steeped in his father's philosophy of "juche" or self-reliance -- the basis of North Korea's reclusive nature. North and South Korea never formally signed a peace treaty and remain technically at war -- separated by a tense demilitarized zone.
North Korea gives Kim's official birthplace as sacred Mount Paektu. The peak, on the northern border with Chinese Manchuria, is the highest on the peninsula and the site where Korean legend says the nation came into existence 5,000 years ago.
Cause of death reported to be "overwork"
Researchers who are more objective place Kim's birth in the Far Eastern region of the Soviet Union on February 16, 1942. His father had fled to the Soviet Union when the Japanese put a price on his head for guerrilla activities in occupied Korea. The family returned to the northern part of the peninsula after the Japanese surrender in World War II, and Soviet dictator Josef Stalin anointed Kim Il Sung as the leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Kim Jong Il's younger brother drowned as a child and his mother died when he was 7 years old. Shortly after, in 1950, the Korean War broke out and he was sent to Manchuria, returning three years later when it ended.
Despite these hardships, Kim Jong Il was presumably surrounded by luxury and privilege for most of his upbringing. As the first-born son of an iron-? dictator, "the doors were likely opening for him from a very young age," according to Dae-sook Suh, a professor of political science at the University of Hawaii who specializes in the Pyongyang government.
Gradually Kim Jong Il was groomed for the top position, making public appearances in front of cheering crowds.
In 1980, Kim Il Sung formally designated his son as his successor. Kim Jong Il was given senior posts in the Politburo, the Military Commission and the Party Secretariat. He took on the title "Dear Leader" and the government began spinning a personality cult around him patterned after that of his father, the "Great Leader."
In 1991, Kim Jong Il became commander-in-chief of North Korea's powerful armed forces, the final step in the long grooming process.
Three years later, when Kim Il Sung died suddenly from a heart attack at 82, most outsiders predicted the imminent collapse of North Korea. The nation had lost its venerated founding father.
Just a few years earlier, its powerful alliances had evaporated with the fall of the Soviet bloc and China's move toward a market-based system. The economy was on the rocks and energy and food were in short supply. A series of weather disasters, combined with an inefficient state-run agricultural system, further eroded the food supply, leading to mass starvation.
The timing could not have been worse for replacing the only leader North Korea had known.
"Heaven didn't smile on Kim Jong Il," said the University of Hawaii's Dae-sook Suh.
After his father's elaborate public funeral Kim Jong Il dropped out of sight, fueling rumors, but he soon managed to consolidate power.
Under his newly organized government, his father's presidential post was left vacant and Kim took the titles of general secretary of the Workers Party and chairman of the National Defense Commission -- a group of 10 men that includes the heads of the air force, army and navy, who are now considered the most powerful in the country.
"It's a peculiar government to say the least," Dae-sook Suh said. "He honors the legacy of his father, but the new government is a Kim Jong Il government. It's quite different from his father's."
Kim Il Sung's unique style of Stalinism, suffused with the Korean juche philosophy, was subordinated to the more militant theme of Kim Jong Il's "Red Banner" policy, introduced in 1996.
The changes afoot were dramatically illustrated in 1997 by the defection of Hwang Jang Yop -- the architect of the juche philosophy and the first high-level official to seek asylum in South Korea.
In a news conference after his defection, Hwang warned of a growing possibility that his homeland might launch an attack. "The preparation for war exceeds your imagination," he said.
Many outsiders viewed the flight of Hwang as another sign that the North Korean regime was on its last legs, but once again it weathered the storm, perhaps even benefiting from the fears of war heightened by Hwang's warning.
Despite sending a test missile over Japan in June 1999 and other such incidents, North Korea under Kim Jong Il also sent signals that it is open to new alliances after decades of isolation. Billions of dollars in international aid poured into North Korea during the 1990s, which did little in return.
Many analysts conclude that Kim Jong Il has played a poor hand of cards skillfully...
Comments
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Should we celebrate or mourn ?????
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Kim Jong II=lunatic.
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great. now another 40 years of a younger version is gonna rule the country. i wonder how many resources and money will be wasted on his funeral procession
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Doesnt his son take over now
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US knew his ass was close to dying so it was no need to attack the country....they can just wait them out like we are doing castro
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get to him now before he becomes a maniac -
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dalyricalbandit wrote: »
get to him now before he becomes a maniac
nah.....nah, look in his eyes....that ? was breastfed crazy. looks like he's thinking bout killing one of his own people right there -
freehuey89 wrote: »nah.....nah, look in his eyes....that ? was breastfed crazy. Looks like he's thinking bout killing one of his own people right there
that ? a young dude who has taking over control of a country u know he going to go wild -
dalyricalbandit wrote: »that ? a young dude who has taking over control of a country u know he going to go wild
word. and he's been living royalty for his whole life?? he gonna have people digging up corpses for food again -
Obama had goons put cyanide in that ? green tea.
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freehuey89 wrote: »word. and he's been living royalty for his whole life?? he gonna have people digging up corpses for food again
lol wouldnt be surprised -
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Silverfoxxx wrote: »...............................
My ? B aint bullshittin -
He has three sons. One he hated because he's limp wristed. The other he hated because he tried to sneak out of the country. The last one is the pudgy kid. Probably, the kid's uncle will take over.
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Good riddance but I hear his kid is even crazier.......not sure how this will pan out, hopefully he doesn't start wildin out
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Silverfoxxx wrote: »...............................
Wouldn't be shocked. Obama is the biggest assassin and killer I've seen since Bush -
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well, there goes a lot of comedy potentialRebelliousIntrovert wrote: »How do you think this will pan out?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/18/kim-jong-il-dead-north-korea_n_1156945.html -
@My_nameaintearl wrote: »He has three sons. One he hated because he's limp wristed. The other he hated because he tried to sneak out of the country. The last one is the pudgy kid. Probably, the kid's uncle will take over.
hilarious. -
Obama don't play tho, this kid will be dead by summer 2012 -
this kid gets out offline and Obama will handle son
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o̶s̶a̶m̶a̶ ̶b̶i̶n̶ ̶l̶a̶d̶e̶n̶ ̶ ̶
k̶i̶m̶ ̶j̶o̶n̶g̶ ̶i̶l̶ ̶ ̶
g̶a̶d̶d̶a̶f̶i̶ ̶
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Hugo Chávez
Kim Jong-un -
dalyricalbandit wrote: »o̶s̶a̶m̶a̶ ̶b̶i̶n̶ ̶l̶a̶d̶e̶n̶ ̶ ̶
k̶i̶m̶ ̶j̶o̶n̶g̶ ̶i̶l̶ ̶ ̶
g̶a̶d̶d̶a̶f̶i̶ ̶
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Hugo Chávez
Kim Jong-un
Ahmadinejad will get murked by "Iraiian rebels" coughciacough
Hugo Chaves will suffer from mutiple assasination attempts and finally die or retire
Kim Jong-un will die a mysterious death after one month in office
Obama won
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straightupsho wrote: »Ahmadinejad will get murked by "Iraiian rebels" coughciacough
Hugo Chaves will suffer from mutiple assasination attempts and finally die or retire
Kim Jong-un will die a mysterious death after one month in office
Obama won
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