Obit: Kim Jong Il Dies (1942-2011)

Subject: Obit: Kim Jong Il Dies
From: GUEST, Eb
Date: 18 Dec 11 - 11:55 PM

Wonder what the turn of this page will bring? I tend to think (or hope) that a new regime will be an improvement over the previous one, but I know that is not even remotely universally true. Haiti's Papa Doc's successor was no improvement nor was Bushie an improvement over Bill.

Subject: RE: Obit: Kim Jong Il Dies
From: GUEST, Eb
Date: 18 Dec 11 - 11:57 PM

Forgot to Link


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Subject: RE: Obit: Kim Jong Il Dies
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 19 Dec 11 - 12:34 AM

May he rest in peace. I hope they get good leadership in his successor. We probably in the interest of world harmony refrain from calling him anything other than his name. mg

Subject: RE: Obit: Kim Jong Il Dies
From: Charlie Baum
Date: 19 Dec 11 - 01:38 AM

Might as well make this musical, with a song by him (sorta):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdug6yHJB40&feature=related

Subject: RE: Obit: Kim Jong Il Dies (1942-2011)
From: michaelr
Date: 19 Dec 11 - 02:07 AM

Bushie an improvement over Bill? That's a non sequitur - GWB was not Clinton's son, heir, or successor in any way that makes sense.

KJI - good riddance.

Subject: RE: Obit: Kim Jong Il Dies (1942-2011)
From: GUEST, Eb
Date: 19 Dec 11 - 02:22 AM

michaelr: granted.

Subject: RE: Obit: Kim Jong Il Dies (1942-2011)
From: Teribus
Date: 19 Dec 11 - 03:01 AM

2011 - quite a good year we saw the end of:

Osama bin Laden
Muammar Gaddafi
Kim Jong-Il

Great pity that that select company was not joined by Bashar al-Assad and Robert Mugabe.

Subject: RE: Obit: Kim Jong Il Dies (1942-2011)
From: autolycus
Date: 19 Dec 11 - 05:22 AM

Justin Webb on the Beeb radio 4 Today prog said his death wasn't exactly a surprise. So who knew something the public didn't?

Journos and broadcasters often do.

Subject: RE: Obit: Kim Jong Il Dies (1942-2011)
From: Dead Horse
Date: 19 Dec 11 - 05:25 AM

It comes as no surprise - he had been Il for some time....

Subject: RE: Obit: Kim Jong Il Dies (1942-2011)
From: GUEST,Bluesman
Date: 19 Dec 11 - 08:05 AM

America doesn't go in there with their chest out.

Subject: RE: Obit: Kim Jong Il Dies (1942-2011)
From: GUEST,999
Date: 19 Dec 11 - 09:50 AM

My sympathy over his death is reserved for the Korean people who had to tolerate him in life. Kim Jong Il proved John Donne wrong, and I think even Will Rogers might have amended his well-known thought had he considered someone like KJI when he said it.

Subject: RE: Obit: Kim Jong Il Dies (1942-2011)
From: Rapparee
Date: 19 Dec 11 - 09:53 AM

Good, he's gone. Perhaps rationality will prevail -- but I doubt it.

He'd been ill -- probably a stroke -- and now his silver chopsticks gather dust. How $#@%!! sad.

Subject: RE: Obit: Kim Jong Il Dies (1942-2011)
From: MarkS
Date: 19 Dec 11 - 10:11 AM

Doesn't he have a son coming up behind him?

Subject: RE: Obit: Kim Jong Il Dies (1942-2011)
From: GUEST,Bluesman
Date: 19 Dec 11 - 10:16 AM

The son would be a better choice than the army.

Subject: RE: Obit: Kim Jong Il Dies (1942-2011)
From: GUEST,Chris B (Born Again Scouser)
Date: 19 Dec 11 - 10:28 AM

So. First it was Kim Il Sung. Then it was Kim Jong Il. Now it's going to be Kim Jong Un. If this one falls off the perch hairdressers all over Liverpool will be clutching their mobiles in anticipation.

Subject: RE: Obit: Kim Jong Il Dies (1942-2011)
From: Ed T
Date: 19 Dec 11 - 10:29 AM

North Korea is a good case for in depth social study.

Possibly there is also good fodder for study in many other fields?

Subject: RE: Obit: Kim Jong Il Dies (1942-2011)
From: pdq
Date: 19 Dec 11 - 10:37 AM

A tip of the hat to Dead Horse.

Speaking of equines, Kim Jong Il was more like the hybrid of a horse and a donkey

Subject: RE: Obit: Kim Jong Il Dies (1942-2011)
From: Rapparee
Date: 19 Dec 11 - 11:42 AM

1. The best life expectancy in an NK prison is 3 years. Few ever get out.

2. If you are imprisoned (say, for black market dealings without supplying enough bribes) your extended family and your neighbors are also jailed (theory of collective guilt).

3. Except among the KWP and the military, malnutrition is so bad there have been food riots this year.

There are several books about the NK paradise, written by defectors who actually pulled it off. BTW, KimJong Il's oldest son lives in Japan.

I can't type much due to my arm being in a cast. Go look it up yourself.

Subject: RE: Obit: Kim Jong Il Dies (1942-2011)
From: Little Hawk
Date: 19 Dec 11 - 12:12 PM

Hmmm. Well, everybody dies sometime. I trust another leader will quickly be appointed in his place, and life will go on.

Subject: RE: Obit: Kim Jong Il Dies (1942-2011)
From: gnu
Date: 19 Dec 11 - 02:38 PM

I thought his son was already doing duty... a while back?

Subject: RE: Obit: Kim Jong Il Dies (1942-2011)
From: Elmore
Date: 19 Dec 11 - 02:48 PM

I believe he's to be replaced by his none too bright son, Kim W. Il.

Subject: RE: Obit: Kim Jong Il Dies (1942-2011)
From: Raedwulf
Date: 19 Dec 11 - 05:54 PM

Good riddance. You can only hope that the Korean people (on both sides of the border) benefit from a rather better leader. Trouble is, you can't really be hopeful that NK is about to get a better one...

Subject: RE: Obit: Kim Jong Il Dies (1942-2011)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 19 Dec 11 - 06:58 PM

Was he a leader, or just a front for the military? I expect no change in policy if the latter is the case.

Subject: RE: Obit: Kim Jong Il Dies (1942-2011)
From: pdq
Date: 19 Dec 11 - 07:45 PM

Kim was a leader and not a shill for the military like Mubarak.

His top "military" were "yes men" and fools who lived in fear of Kim. Some thought him mad and capable of anything.

Subject: RE: Obit: Kim Jong Il Dies (1942-2011)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 19 Dec 11 - 07:56 PM

I think the reverse was (and is) true and he was a well-handled puppet. We probably won't get the truth for some years.

Subject: RE: Obit: Kim Jong Il Dies (1942-2011)
From: Little Hawk
Date: 20 Dec 11 - 12:43 AM

It's normal to characterize almost any leader not liked by the USA as "mad and capable of anything", isn't it?

I've heard the same assertions in the past about a whole long series of foreign leaders that the USA didn't care for. They probably say similar stuff about the American leaders, and perhaps with a bit more justification. The USA, after all, has invaded a great many countries in the last hundred years, and is the ONLY power yet in history which has used atomic bombs on cities full of civilians.

Subject: RE: Obit: Kim Jong Il Dies (1942-2011)
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 20 Dec 11 - 02:33 AM

It just goes to show that you can run a country with an iron rod but the grim reaper will still get you in the end.

Subject: RE: Obit: Kim Jong Il Dies (1942-2011)
From: Musket
Date: 20 Dec 11 - 05:08 AM

Why is everybody fascinated with the advertised leaders of North Korea?

The people running North Korea are in Beijing. Ask them if they will accept an opening up of the country, as they seem to be calling the shots and propping the regime up.

Or is a secretive area with no public access in their interests? A bloke could get paranoid here.

Just been thinking, Bin Laden, Gaddaffi and now Kim Jong Il.

I notice Th*tcher was too ill to attend a big civic bash the other week. I'm off to the bookies, catch you later.

Subject: RE: Obit: Kim Jong Il Dies (1942-2011)
From: Brian May
Date: 20 Dec 11 - 06:03 PM

The difference is in the USA you voted and got Dubya, the NKs didn't and got the Kim family..

It's tough working out who came off worse ;o)

Subject: RE: Obit: Kim Jong Il Dies (1942-2011)
From: gnu
Date: 20 Dec 11 - 06:15 PM

Brian... hahahaaa... well, if it wasn't sooo sad.

Subject: RE: Obit: Kim Jong Il Dies (1942-2011)
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 20 Dec 11 - 06:31 PM

It would be much simpler if they used numbers, like other hereditary monarchies - Kim I, Kim II, Kim III...

Subject: RE: Obit: Kim Jong Il Dies (1942-2011)
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 20 Dec 11 - 06:57 PM

RIH! (Rot In Hell!)

Subject: RE: Obit: Kim Jong Il Dies (1942-2011)
From: Brian May
Date: 21 Dec 11 - 05:43 PM

His son looks like a bright lad . . .

Subject: RE: Obit: Kim Jong Il Dies (1942-2011)
From: GUEST,999
Date: 21 Dec 11 - 07:14 PM

Brian, that's the funniest thing I've read on Mudcat in more than two weeks. LOL

Subject: RE: Obit: Kim Jong Il Dies (1942-2011)
From: Young Buchan
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 06:40 PM

For many years I had a clipping from a magazine with a photograph of some musicians with captioned "The PRK National Folk Ensemble sing a folk ballad entitled Great Are The Theses On The Agricultural Question In Our Country Authored By Our Respected Leader".
I can't find the words in Digitrad ...