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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| N Korea train blast victims died saving leaders’ portraits - report |
| 2004-04-29 |
| Doesn’t it nearly bring a tear to your eye? Well if not a guffaw. Many North Koreans died a "heroic death" after last week’s train explosion by running into burning buildings to rescue portraits of leader Kim Jong-il and his father, the North’s official media reported yesterday. Portraits of Kim and his late father, national founder Kim Il-sung, are mandatory in every home, office and factory in the communist state of 23 million. All adults are required to wear lapel pins bearing images of one or both Kims. Last Thursday’s blast in the town of Ryongchon, near the Chinese border, killed at least 161 people and injured 1,300, according to international relief agencies. Many of the victims were children. The dead also included workers and teachers who died clutching the portraits of the country’s ruling family, North Korea’s official KCNA news agency said. "Many people of the county evacuated portraits before searching after their family members or saving their household goods," KCNA said in a report with a Ryongchon dateline. "Upon hearing the sound of the heavy explosion on their way home for lunch, Choe Yong-il and Jon Tong-sik, workers of the county procurement shop, ran back to the shop," KCNA said. "They were buried under the collapsing building to die a heroic death when they were trying to come out with portraits of President Kim Il-sung and leader Kim Jong-il," it said. The KCNA report could not be independently verified. Kim Jong-il, 62, inherited power upon his father’s death in 1994 in the communist world’s only case of hereditary succession. The elder Kim was named "eternal president" and both Kims are the focus of cult worship of an intensity historians say surpasses that of Stalin in the Soviet Union or Mao in China. "Teacher Han Jong-suk, 56, also breathed her last with portraits in her bosom," KCNA said. Another teacher saved seven students but died rescuing the portraits, it said. The prison diaries of North Korean defectors refer to people imprisoned for accidentally defacing portraits of the Kims. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #7 Sad to say, there's probably at least some truth to this. I've read several accounts of the loss of Japanese ships in WW2 (e.g., A Glorious Way to Die, which is about the last sortie of the battleship Yamato) in which it was said that officers and crew were sure to rescue the Emperor's portrait from the sinking ship, since it was a portrait of someone then considered to be a god. Kim Jong Il's personality cult is, if anything, even more extreme than Hirohito's, since there are no other gods in North Korea. (Today's Japanese Navy would probably behave differently, of course.) |
| Posted by: Mike 2004-04-29 9:25:19 AM |
| #6 HEY!! Maybe the PR machines are working overtime to crank out the "how beloved our dear leader is among the people" global press releases because....because..... anybody seen Kimmy lately??? ah shucks...nobody can say I'm not an optimist :-) |
| Posted by: B 2004-04-29 9:22:40 AM |
| #5 Another teacher saved seven students but died rescuing the portraits, it said. This teacher probably would have faced life imprisonment for saving the students before the portraits. John, someday perhaps Kimmie-boy himself and the remains of his dead father will be tossed on the bonfire. |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2004-04-29 9:18:57 AM |
| #4 "Many people of the county evacuated portraits before searching after their family members or saving their household goods" Crikey, I didn't know he was that popular ;) Dead right - John/Tokyo |
| Posted by: Howard UK 2004-04-29 6:00:52 AM |
| #3 The real story here is it (i.e. this drivel) is a Reuters report, published in Australia's largest circulation newspaper. |
| Posted by: Phil B 2004-04-29 3:46:53 AM |
| #2 Sorry. I just can't laugh about this one. Some day, God willing, all pictures of the Kims will be tossed onto a raging bonfire. |
| Posted by: John in Tokyo 2004-04-29 3:33:18 AM |
| #1 The dead also included workers and teachers who died clutching the portraits of the country’s ruling family, North Korea’s official KCNA news agency said. And the state news agency is BRAGGING about this. ...and Simba looked into the sky and heard the voice of his father Moustafa, and was reminded of the circle of life.... In this movie was Whoopi Goldberg's type-casting as a hyena, but I digress, except to say she had musings in favor of Communism on Bill Maher several years ago. This anecdote was related by Dennis Prager who was on that show. . The prison diaries of North Korean defectors refer to people imprisoned for accidentally defacing portraits of the Kims. Yeah Whoopi, Communism looks great to me. |
| Posted by: BigEd 2004-04-29 2:51:33 AM |