Kim Jong Il no longer rucky.
Posted on 11/24/2004 10:12:09 PM PST by Mensch
SEOUL : Badges depicting North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il, a key symbol of his personality cult, are disappearing from peoples' chests in the communist country.
South Korea's Unification Ministry confirmed that lapel badges of Kim are no longer being worn by North Koreans travelling from the Stalinist state to China on official business.
In the past, they wore either a badge portraying Kim or a similar badge portraying his father, the Stalinist state's founder Kim Il-Sung who died in 1994.
"North Koreans travelling to and from China who formerly wore the badge of either Kim Il-Sung or Kim Jong-Il on their chests, have stopped wearing the Kim Jong-Il badge," Unification Ministry spokeswoman Yang Jong-Hwa told AFP, citing an internal report from the ministry's information analysis bureau.
"They are wearing only the Kim Il-Sung badge."
Ten years after his death the elder Kim is still revered in North Korea where he is frequently described as president for eternity.
But the pervasive personality cult built around his son appears to be shrinking.
Reports of the disappearing lapel badges follow recent confirmation that Kim Jong-Il's portraits have vanished from key sites visited by foreigners in Pyongyang.
The Unification Ministry is still analyzing the nature and significance of these changes, Yang said.
Media reports in South Korea said the phasing-out of the Kim Jong-Il badges was widespread and affected business people, diplomats and other North Koreans who come into contact with foreigners.
"We learned recently that North Koreans at the country's foreign missions and trading companies, as well as those guiding foreigners inside the North are not wearing the Kim Jong-Il badges," an unnamed Seoul official told the Seoul-based JoongAng Ilbo.
The official said Kim Jong-Il himself ordered the Mansudae Art Studio, the North's main producer of propaganda materials, to stop manufacturing his badges late last year.
He said North Koreans were told to take off their Kim Jong-Il badges for the commemoration of the 10th anniversary of Kim Il-Sung's death in July this year.
The apparent downsizing of the Kim cult of personality has led to speculation that changes may be taking place in the power structure of the tightly controlled communist country.
But Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei on Wednesday said the Stalinist state was stable and big changes were not imminent.
"The politics are stable, the economy is developing and the leaders are thinking seriously about economic reform," Wu Dawei told a briefing in Beijing as he described his September visit to Pyongyang.
Choson Sinbo, run by the pro-Pyongyang General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, said the measures reflected the "noble will of General Kim Jong-Il who wants to hold up only President Kim Il-Sung aloft."
Analysts said it it is virtually impossible to confirm exactly what is going on inside the secretive nation.
Kim's portraits have long been ubiquitous in homes, offices and public buildings across North Korea, where they have hung prominently beside a picture of his late father.
The junior Kim took power when his father, who founded the hermit nation, died in July, 1994.
- AFP
Buh bye, Kim Jong Il-in-the-head.
How is that celestial dirt-nap coming?
There was report earlier this month that they remove all protrait of Little Kim in North Korea
Picture lapels on people chest oh man getting very mysterious in Little Kim Land
Kim Jong Il no longer rucky.
My thought exactly. It sounds like he has been "whacked". Things must be getting really desparate in the people's paradise of North Korea.
I continue to believe that Team America: World Police has had an impact on this situation.
Another piece of the puzzle is that he has not been seen in public since the death of a special "friend" some weeks ago. Maybe he harmed himself in some way--obviously speculation but he has more than one loose bolt rolling around that head.
This is most excellent news.
How do you say tinfoil hat in Korean?
Yeah... but he's so ronery.
***How is that celestial dirt-nap coming***
They've released video of him recently, but who knows if it's real.
This may be screwball tactics on KJI & NK's part.
Maybe KJI has had a change of heart regarding his cult status.
Maybe there has been a coup but he is being kept alive for some reason.
Maybe something else totally unexpected...
If he is dead, how long do they think they can keep it a secret? Once the cat is out of the bag what do the nutcases do then?
I figure he's pulling a Castro, using a dead guy , like Che, (or Lenin) , to rally around.
The special friend death story leads one to think that Kim has isolated himself away from all reality...and the remaining figures in the upper part of the government now see a total nut in the position...and figure its time to downgrade the status of the glorous leader.
Maybe some day some reporter will be sharp enough to ask someone why they had taken off thier badge, why they had taken down his picture, why...
"...In a sign of investor concern about North Korea, rumours swirled in financial markets in Tokyo and Seoul that leader Kim Jong-il had been shot dead..."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1288141/posts
Some of them have been seen wearing JimRob badges others have sneered "we don't need no steenkin badges"
I'm so glad that I'm not the only one who thinks that.
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