Posted on 02/16/2005 5:58:13 PM PST by blam
Dictator celebrates as North Koreans starve
(Filed: 17/02/2005)
Kim Jong-Il celebrated his birthday in exuberant fashion yesterday, despite worsening food rations among his people and international condemnation of his nuclear ambitions.
Children's dance displays, synchronised swimming, fireworks and Kim's personal touch - flower shows featuring the Kimjongilia, a form of magnolia specially bred to bloom early in his honour - marked the 63 years of North Korea's "Dear Leader".
An army dance ensemble performed a concert featuring numbers such as General on a Galloping White Horse and a female solo, I Do Not Know a Warmer Bosom.
Pyongyang's central square "turned into rising waves of dances when the participants presented more enthusiastic dances, waving the flags of the supreme commander", said the official Korean Central News Agency.
"The Korean people unanimously revere leader Kim Jong-il as a brilliant commander," it added.
The KCNA's clear assertion that Kim's personality cult is alive and well will come as a blow to those opponents who had hoped from recent leaks from inside the reclusive country that his power was heading for collapse.
Late last year, reports emerged that his official portrait was being taken down from some public buildings, while analysts have questioned how much longer even a totalitarian dictatorship such as his can survive in the face of economic crisis.
Since losing its main backer, the Soviet Union, at the beginning of the 1990s, North Korea has suffered a famine in which at least a million people are thought to have died, industrial collapse, power shortages and now rampant inflation as tentative economic reforms are tried out.
The World Food Programme said last month that food rations had been cut in half, on top of chronic shortages that have already led to serious stunting of the country's children.
Kim says he is the victim of attempts by the United States to "stifle" him prior to launching an invasion. He has repeatedly claimed to have a nuclear weapon, and has refused to take part in further talks on the issue with the US and his closest neighbours. His country needs the bomb as a deterrent, he insists.
An aide was reported as saying: "If the US recklessly opts for a war of aggression despite the repeated warning, our army and people will mobilise all potentials. [We will] deal merciless, crushing blows at the aggressors."
Curiously, occasional reports from inside his secluded family-run leadership clique suggest that Kim is well aware of - and slightly embarrassed by - the absurdity of his personality cult, but feels unable to do anything about it.
He certainly contributes to the cult surrounding his late father, Kim il-Sung, who is still officially president, even in death, and whose birthday is celebrated in similar style.
But official pronouncements sometimes now take on a hint of fashionable anti-globalisation and anti-Americanism, and stress the internationalisation of Kim's support. This year, birthday festivals were apparently also held in Russia, Guinea, Senegal, Iran, Pakistan, Malaysia, Singapore and Nigeria.
"The day is an auspicious holiday for progressive people all over the world," said the KCNA.
Isn't SOCIALISM/COMMUNISM beautiful ????
S i c k
I wonder how many parties are going on over at DU?
Channeling DU here: But Bush spent $40 Million on his inaugural while the homeless slept sewer vents. It's totally comparable.
I'm afraid the KCNA is correct. I'm sure there are a few leftists in the U.S. who marked the "Great Leader's" birthday today. It's twisted.
Sure, especially when the regimes are anti-US.
I understand Kim's champagne and cognac are quite splendid.
Justin McCurry in Tokyo
Thursday February 17, 2005
The Guardian
Days after drawing international condemnation by declaring his country a nuclear power, the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, was showered with domestic plaudits yesterday as he celebrated his 63rd birthday.
While members of the communist state's elite dined on pheasant and venison, the official media heaped praise on a man condemned by the west as a tyrant.
The newspaper Rodong Shinmun described him as an "illustrious commander, endowed with outstanding commandership art and matchless courage and pluck."
Mindful of western pressure on Pyongyang to negotiate an end to its nuclear weapons programme, the newspaper vowed that any "plot of the US imperialists" against North Korea would prove futile "and the sovereignty of our country will be firmly defended".'
The impoverished citizens of North Korea, where more than 1 million people are said to have starved to death in the 1990s, were given small packets of rice, meat or other rations - personal gifts from the Dear Leader.
Despite rumours that Mr Kim is preparing to hand over to one of his three sons, Korea watchers interpreted the birthday celebrations as a sign that he is reaffirming his grip on power.
There is a very special and horrific place in Hell reserved for this demonic so-called 'family'.
I wouldn't be surprised if Kim Jong ends up playing 'Wormwood' to his already-burning-daddy's 'Uncle Screwtape'.
You have to be familiar with C.S. Lewis to get this joke.
Official name of North Korea: The People's Democratic
Republic of Korea
Notice Democratic? The name says it all.
Official name of North Korea: The People's Democratic
Republic of Korea
Notice Democratic? The name says it all.
Sorry for the double post.
Is Whoopie Goldberg celebrating ?
I don't know: "Children's dance displays, synchronised swimming, ... flower shows".
Could "Dear Leader" be a bit wifty.
The impoverished citizens of North Korea, where more than 1 million people are said to have starved to death in the 1990s, were given small packets of rice, meat or other rations - personal gifts from the Dear Leader.
That was their year's supply of food.
This pompous, nose-thumbing display would be mildly amusing if weren't for the fact that millions are suffering.
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