Article

2004-04-29 China-Japan-Koreas

N Korea train blast victims died saving leadersâ portraits - report

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Posted by tipper 2004-04-29 12:58:23 AM|| || Front Page|| [3 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 The dead also included workers and teachers who died clutching the portraits of the countryâs ruling family, North Koreaâs 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|| 2004-04-29 2:51:33 AM|| Front Page Top

#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|| 2004-04-29 3:33:18 AM|| Front Page Top

#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|| 2004-04-29 3:46:53 AM|| Front Page Top

#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|| 2004-04-29 6:00:52 AM|| Front Page Top

#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|| 2004-04-29 9:18:57 AM|| Front Page Top

#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|| 2004-04-29 9:22:40 AM|| Front Page Top

#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|| 2004-04-29 9:25:19 AM|| Front Page Top

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