Killer headline at the Drudge Report; as Michael Totten writes, “This hasn’t yet been confirmed, but it’s not the sort of thing North Korean television would lie about if it’s still in the hands of the government.” Meanwhile at the Tatler, Claudia Rosett writes:
Believing anything that North Korean news reports is a dangerous game, but this one appears to be true: Kim Jong Il, monstrous ruler of North Korea, has died. Maybe yesterday. Maybe on a train.
Big question now, what happens next with the totalitarian regime that Kim inherited from his father, and was apparently trying to pass on to one of his sons? And will U.S. diplomats now rush in, as they did during North Korea’s last succession, in 1994, with aid and deals that help shore up the regime during the vulnerable stage of transition? Or will they do the right thing, and look for ways to finally bring down the horrific system which since the late 1940s has enslaved North Koreans and threatened the Free World?
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At last, an opportunity for North Korea to enter the 19th century. But will they take it?
Update: Not surprisingly, lots of action on Twitter just now. Josh Trevino wins the Tweet of the Year award: “I’d like to think God let Havel and Hitchens pick the third.” Meanwhile, Pejman Yousefzadeh links to Pyongyang Rose’s video meltdown and quips, “I feast upon your tears:”
More: What happens next? Allahpundit links to a 2006 Robert Kaplan article in the Atlantic on that very topic and adds:
How loyal will the military be to new supreme honcho Kim Jong-un? On the one hand, the old guard was reportedly fulsomely obsequious towards him when the regime started rolling him out last year as the heir apparent. Could be that they were acting that way simply to avoid being sent to Camp 22 by his pop if they didn’t, but it could also be that his pedigree as a Kim is enough to warrant absolute devotion. Remember, this is a country so deeply, insanely cultish in its worship of the leader that Kim Il-Sung — Kim Jong-Il’s father, and a man who’s been dead for nearly 20 years — is technically still president. (Hitchens famously described this more-Orwellian-than-Orwell arrangement as a “necrocracy.”) On the other hand, is the North Korean military really going to take orders from … this guy? C’mon.
South of the border, “This is S. Korean president Lee Myung-bak’s 70 birthday today. Surprise!” Chico Harlan of the Washington Post notes, in an endlessly retweeted item. “Best. Birthday Ever,” as Trevino adds.
Flashback: Christopher Hitchens on North Korea, a nation he dubbed “Worse than 1984,” back in 2005:
One tries to avoid cliché, and I did my best on a visit to this terrifying country in the year 2000, but George Orwell’s 1984was published at about the time that Kim Il Sung set up his system, and it really is as if he got hold of an early copy of the novel and used it as a blueprint. (“Hmmm … good book. Let’s see if we can make it work.”)
Actually, North Korea is rather worse than Orwell’s dystopia. There would be no way, in the capital city of Pyongyang, to wander off and get lost in the slums, let alone to rent an off-the-record love nest in a room over a shop. Everybody in the city has to be at home and in bed by curfew time, when all the lights go off (if they haven’t already failed). A recent nighttime photograph of the Korean peninsula from outer space shows something that no “free-world” propaganda could invent: a blaze of electric light all over the southern half, stopping exactly at the demilitarized zone and becoming an area of darkness in the north.
From ABC back in 2007, what it’s like to be “Born and Raised in a North Korean Prison Camp.”
Reminder: In the comments below, a reader praises CNN’s coverage of Kim Jong Il’s death. But I wonder what the network’s founder is thinking right now?
Update: Via Michael van Poppel of Breaking News Online, “North Koreans weeping hysterically over the death of Kim Jong-il.” Exit quote: “I will change sorrow into strength and courage and remain faithful to respected Comrade Kim Jong Un:”
Update: Ed Morrissey links to a 2010 video from CNN on Kim Jong Un; whose breathless tone dovetails rather well with Turner’s views above — and sounds like pro-German or Russian propaganda from the 1930s. Or just about any CNN report involving a totalitarian dictator (or Barack Obama) since the network’s founding:
(If video above doesn’t play, it’s also currently online here.)
It’s 11:00PM on Sunday, here in Texas and, after the Chargers game, I flipped through the channels for a final time. As much as we dislike the media and, especially, CNN, ONLY CNN is covering this story and doing it extensively.
They don’t have much but they are treating it like other channels handle Leslie Lohan or Tebow.
Well done CNN!! (For once.)
He is not dead
He is just resting
Like Norwegian Blue Parrot in the Monti Python skit
‘ Mr. Praline: ‘Ello, I wish to register a complaint.
(The owner does not respond.)
Mr. Praline: ‘Ello, Miss?
Owner: What do you mean “miss”?
Mr. Praline: I’m sorry, I have a cold. I wish to make a complaint!
Owner: We’re closin’ for lunch.
Mr. Praline: Never mind that, my lad. I wish to complain about this Kim Jong Il parrot what I purchased not half an hour ago from this very boutique.
Owner: Oh yes, the, uh, the Norwegian Blue…What’s,uh…What’s wrong with it?
Mr. Praline: I’ll tell you what’s wrong with it, my lad. ‘E’s dead, that’s what’s wrong with it!
Owner: No, no, ‘e’s uh,…he’s resting.
Mr. Praline: Look, matey, I know a dead Kim Jong Il when I see one, and I’m looking at one right now.
Owner: No no he’s not dead, he’s, he’s restin’! Remarkable Kim Jong Il, the Norwegian Blue, idn’it, ay? Beautiful plumage!
Mr. Praline: The plumage don’t enter into it. It’s stone dead.
Owner: Nononono, no, no! ‘E’s resting!
Mr. Praline: All right then, if he’s restin’, I’ll wake him up! (shouting at the cage) ‘Ello, Mister Kim Jong Il! I’ve got a lovely bottle of Johnnie Walker Black Label for you if you show…
(owner hits the cage)
Owner: There, he moved!
Mr. Praline: No, he didn’t, that was you hitting the cage!
Owner: I never!!
Mr. Praline: Yes, you did!
Owner: I never, never did anything…
Mr. Praline: (yelling and hitting the cage repeatedly) ‘ELLO Kim Jong Il!!!!! Testing! Testing! Testing! Testing! This is your nine o’clock alarm call!
(Takes essayist out of the cage and thumps its head on the counter. Throws it up in the air and watches it plummet to the floor.)
Mr. Praline: Now that’s what I call a dead Kim Jong Il.
Owner: No, no…..No, ‘e’s stunned!
Mr. Praline: STUNNED?!?
Owner: Yeah! You stunned him, just as he was wakin’ up! Norwegian Blues stun easily, major.
Mr. Praline: Um…now look…now look, mate, I’ve definitely ‘ad enough of this. That Kim Jong Il is definitely deceased, and when I purchased it not ‘alf an hour ago, you assured me that its total lack of movement was due to it bein’ tired and shagged out following a prolonged piss-up.
Owner: Well, he’s…he’s, ah…probably pining for the fjords.
Mr. Praline: PININ’ for the FJORDS?!?!?!? What kind of talk is that?, look, why did he fall flat on his back the moment I got ‘im home?
Owner: The Norwegian Blue prefers keepin’ on its back! Remarkable Kim Jong Il, id’nit, squire? Lovely plumage!
Mr. Praline: Look, I took the liberty of examining that Kim Jong Il when I got it home, and I discovered the only reason that it had been sitting on its perch in the first place was that it had been NAILED there.
(pause)
Owner: Well, o’course it was nailed there! If I hadn’t nailed that Kim Jong Il down, it would have nuzzled up to those bars, bent ‘em apart with its beak, and VOOM! Feeweeweewee!
Mr. Praline: “VOOM”?!? Mate, this Kim Jong Il wouldn’t “voom” if you put four million volts through it! ‘E’s bleedin’ demised!
Owner: No no! ‘E’s pining!
Mr. Praline: ‘E’s not pinin’! ‘E’s passed on! This Kim Jong Il is no more! He has ceased to be! ‘E’s expired and gone to meet ‘is maker! ‘E’s a stiff! Bereft of life, ‘e rests in peace! If you hadn’t nailed ‘im to the perch ‘e’d be pushing up the daisies! ‘Is metabolic processes are now ‘istory! ‘E’s off the twig! ‘E’s kicked the bucket, ‘e’s shuffled off ‘is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin’ choir invisibile!! THIS IS AN EX-Kim Jong Il!!
(pause)
Owner: Well, I’d better replace it, then. (he takes a quick peek behind the counter) Sorry squire, I’ve had a look ’round the back of the shop, and uh, we’re right out of Kim Jong Ilses.
Mr. Praline: I see. I see, I get the picture.
Owner: I got a slug.
(pause)
Mr. Praline: Pray, does it talk?
Owner: Nnnnot really.
Mr. Praline: WELL IT’S HARDLY A BLOODY REPLACEMENT, IS IT?!!???!!?
Owner: N-no, I guess not. (gets ashamed, looks at his feet)
Mr. Praline: Well.
(pause)
Owner: (quietly) D’you…. d’you want to come back to my place?
Mr. Praline: (looks around) Yeah, all right, sure.”
——
You could replace the term Kim Jong Il with Christopher Hitchens it works even better
Excellent.
I was taught it was wrong to be amused by the death of even a thoroughgoing rotter (which Lil’ Kim absolutely was), but in this case I’ll make a self-exception.
Well done.
cheers
eon
Man, talk about a sweet complementary news item to a Chargers victory.
Here’s crossing my fingers and hoping for good and happy things for both Koreas. Would be nice to see a unification led by South Korea with China standing aside. Though that could be in question seeing how much of a puppet state North Korea is to the commies. And with how much the NK military doesn’t quite respect Kim Jr., let’s hope they don’t decide to lash out in a blaze of glory against the south.
I do wonder if this is the kickoff of 2012, and what promises to be what the Chinese call “interesting times”.
So let’s scenario:
1) The successor regime decides to be all the more communist psychopathic because…. that’s all they have and that’s all they know. And if all of it is going to crash down around them, why not launch that war? What do they have to lose? They’ve been telling everyone and themselves for decades that they will win it, maybe they really believe it.
2) The successor regime realizes what a pit of hell Grandaddy and Daddy Kim have made of the place, and they choose to reach out. Desireable, but in doing so, they will require, they will NEED……desperately NEED….. money money and more money. And here’s where it gets cute: It does not matter how much we want to help poor, starving, now much nicer North Korea…. NO ONE has the money. NO ONE!!! How ’bout it America, another 500 billion to a trillion for the NoKos? (pocket change to what they really need). You OK with that? Maybe they can get it from Europe… they got money falling out of their hindquarters, don’t they? Uh huh. China? Damned arguably THEY should but up every penny… or yuan, I suppose. Think they will, or even can? It’s Bubble City over there, as they will be really finding out in short order. (another 2012 circus ‘o fun.)
NO ONE HAS THE MONEY TO HELP THOSE PEOPLE… AT ALL! No one.
So now what?
A news anchor weeps while the rest of the world cheers.
Watching the Nork reporter weep, I got a premonition of MSNBC reporters weeping when China collapses.
YES! (Is it wrong to celebrate a death of a scumbag during the holidays)?
See, this is what happens when the UN keeps sending strongly worded letters to people.
The worlds first dynastic communist state
The king is dead–long live the king
The successor is Kim Jong UN–28 years old–not good–educated in Switzerland-good
–the NK military will now dominate.
The ball is now in China’s court–China is so tied into the Western economy it wants/needs stability
–Asian Capital Markets down 3.5%–NK benefits from volatility
–the last thing they wont is millions of starving people flooding across the border.
Same for SK–the land mines are some deterrent but millions will overwhelm them
SecState Clinton should send condolences along with a dead/resting Norwegian Blue Parrot–together with a mini defibrillator
I expect Sec.State Hillary Clinton to be packing her bags to go there now.
And, don’t forget her red dress. Yes, tons of aid money and food
were already on the way to N.Korea anyway. I expect a news conference from
President Obama praising the Great Leader and looking forward to bowing down
to his son…
Yeah, she doesn’t wear blue dresses anymore.
“The king is dead–long live the king”
You mean: The Kim is dead – long live the Kim!
I’m reminded of what Bette Davis said on the death of Joan Crawford. She said, “I’m told one should say nothing but good things about the dead. Joan Crawford is dead. Good.”
Kim Jong Il is dead. Good.
NO! (It is not wrong to celebrate the death of this filthy, worm-like bag of pus, no matter when it occurs. Bubbly for all!)
Watching the Nork reporter weep, I got a premonition of MSNBC reporters weeping when Obama loses
Could Castro be next? A thought devoutly to be wished.
I thought I felt a chill. Or was it heat – hard to tell which when hell opens it’s gate.
That female North Korean broadcaster really isn’t reading anything. What she is really doing is cutting up a lot of raw onions to make herself cry for an animal like that. It’s always a good day when an insane dictator like Kim dies and with China probably maintaining order in North Korea, not much will change there (unfortunately). Change will only come to North Korea if the generals want it to change. And even if that happens, it would remain to be seen if China would allow it to happen. It’s a terrible situation in a really horrific country. Just sad to see the people there have to endure that nightmare.
Who is Alec Baldwin and Matt Damon going to look up to now that Kim Jong is dead?
“Exit quote: “I will change sorrow into strength and courage and remain faithful to respected Comrade Kim Jong Un””
Sotto Voce: “…if I know what’s good for me…”
The nighttime photo of the Korean peninsula doesn’t look right — shouldn’t there be some lights on the Chinese side of the North Korean border? Compare http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0011/earthlights2_dmsp_big.jpg where the Chinese border appears to be delineated with lights on the northern side.
When dear leader Obama focuses like a laser, he can kill with only his staggering intellect and brilliant foreign policy. I wonder how long it will take for the MSM to put this feather in his cap.
It is said that the “Great Leader” died of “great mental and physical strain” on Saturday during a “high intensity field inspection.” I suppose it is too much to hope that the “high intensity field inspection” had been of a pillow held forcefully on his head by one of his generals…
At any rate, good riddance to him, and all like him, who would impoverish and deny meaningful life to others merely to have the world conform to their preferred views of how things should be. When faced with a choice between fact and theory, they choose the theory.
I had no idea that high intensity fields were so stressful to inspect. He should have studied more physics.
More likely liver failure. He was the #1 consumer of Hennessy cognac in the world.
Bin Laden and Kim. It’s been a good year. Would it be too much to ask for Castro or Chavez to make it a trifecta?
Doesn’t Colonel Gaddafi count?
Leftism is having a rough year.
Totalitarianism is fighting back.
Freedom is on the sidelines in a cast.
The Revolution is on. Everywhere.
In every direction. Europe is collapsing. The Middle East is imploding.
Russia is revolting and China is teetering. Iran is exploding and Iraq is quaking.
Mexico is roiling and North Korea is awaiting.
Gangsters, gangsters everywhere. Thugs and despots, dictators, oh my.
We live in interesting times. The Revolution is on.
And we are in the thick of it.
We’re all cursing this guy, but to what degree was he really the functional leader of North Korea? Did he really believe all the quasi-religious hype about himself and his dad? Was he a real dictator or just a guy the Army stood up in front of us, an object for his people to love and everybody else to hate? He always seemed like such a miserable little pud-knocker. Was he, in fact, a miserable little pud-knocker after all?
And what of Un?
And thus the whirligig of time brings in his revenges.
Kim Jong is dead? I had no idea he was Il.
“As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked.”
However, being a fallen creature, I sometimes do.
The crocodile tears and appropriate body language was brilliantly displayed