SKorea dismisses rumours about NKorea leader's death

AFP ^ | AFP

[Int]

SEOUL (AFP) South Korea's government on Thursday dismissed rumours of the death of North Korea's reclusive leader Kim Jong-Il as baseless after they swirled through stock markets.

"Recent rumours (about Kim's death) are groundless," Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Ho-Nyoun told reporters.

The rumours emerged briefly on South Korea's financial markets and in Tokyo but were short-lived, market watchers said.

The North's official Korean Central News Agency reported Thursday that Kim was touring a textile factory in the northeastern port city of Hamhung.

Rumours about Kim's death have circulated this week despite reports by the North's state media that he visited army units Monday and Wednesday.

NewsHakuk.com, a local Internet news service, reported late Wednesday that Kim had been killed Monday -- but then pulled the story Thursday without any explanation.

Kyobo Securities analyst Lee Woo-Hyun told AFP there were rumours that Kim had died, "but investors largely dismissed it."

Kim's health has been a source of fevered speculation overseas.

Foreign officials and media have long speculated that Kim, a former smoker and heavy drinker, was ill. Seoul intelligence officials say they believe he has diabetes and heart problems.

Kim strogly denied rumours of heart disease or diabetes at an inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang last October, denouncing media reports about his health as fiction.

He took charge of the impoverished hardline state in 1994 on the death of his father and North Korea's founder Kim Il-Sung, creating the world's first communist dynasty.

Masatoshi Sato, broker at Mizuho Investors Securities in Tokyo, said there had appeared to be unconfirmed rumours on his death flying around the market.

"I don't think it would have a significant impact on the market" even if it was true, Sato said.

Some investors might want to buy stocks amid speculation South Korea would benefit from industrial demand to reconstruct North Korea, he said.

But he said regime change in Pyongyang would actually impact negatively on Seoul. "North Korea is in a severe economic state and the South Korean economy couldn't prop it up," he added.

[Int]

NewsHakuk.com is headlining now with the ROK Minister's denial of their original report

[Enchante]

too bad, I had a bottle of champagne ready

[weegee]

Will Sting fly in to sing “So Lonely” at the funeral?

[2ndDivisionVet]

I don’t know if DPRK (North Korean) strongman Kim Jung Il is dead, but the wildest night of my life was when Republic of Korea (South Korea)President Park Chung Hee was assassinated by the Korean CIA director! I was on duty at the I Corps (ROK/US) Group G-2 operations center as the early-warning hotline intelligence analyst, and all of a sudden, all the ROK soldiers started talking a mile-a-minute in Hangul (Korean) and I asked what was the matter, because you could see the shock in their faces, like I saw on my parent’s faces when JFK was assassinated (I wasn’t yet 4 years old, but I remember it). They told me what had happened, as they got it from radio news reports. Naturally, I had to wake up the generals and the G staff people (G-1 thru G-5) and alert 2nd Division, while the ROKs called all the Korean Army units subordinate to us (about half the ROKA). We went to a higher DEFCON and started running patrols and flights along the DMZ, so that the communists wouldn’t get the idea that they could use this as a pretext to attack southward. Very hairy there for about a week.

[happygrl]

It's got to happen sometime.

Unless they pickle him, and drag him out like "Weekend at Barney's".

[happygrl]

That's what I like about FR.

There's almost always a Freeper who has been there when history was being made.

[LukeL]

Is G-1 the same as an O-1 in the US Military?

[2ndDivisionVet]

No, G-1 thru G-5 are the staff sections in a division or corps. In an Army, they are called “J” sections, for joint.
The “G” stands for general staff: G-1 is personnel, G-2 is intelligence, G-3 is operations and training, G-4 is supply & logistics and G-5 is civil affairs.

[monkapotamus]

ping

[Kozak]

You mean “ So Ronery” don’t you?

[spokeshave]

Obambi nearly lost a close admirer

[Ezekiel]

You know what this mean. Chia Pet get yellow hair.

[Tamar1973]

I’ll drink some good South Korean soju to celebrate!

[Enchante]

I’ve never had soju but I’ll be happy to try it!

Especially for such an occasion as the demise of the totalitarian troll of Pyongyang. May he become worm food sooner rather than later.

[E Rocc]

Is the cockroach-size spaceship fueled up on launch pad alert?

-Eric

[Jimmy Valentine]

Are there any other news sources confirming?

[sam_paine]

Maybe the ROK denial is just wishful thinking.

I’ve yet to meet a South Korean businessman who says he’s eager to see Lil Kimmy toppled or dead etc.

They want him up there, they need him up there to keep all their Korean brothers in chains eating subsistence rice, because if he falls, there might be reunification which would be a drag on the South’s economy for decades.

It’s a pretty harsh harsh rationalization I’ve never seen anything like, even in pre-unified Germany.

[DogBarkTree]

[LomanBill]

Send in the crones.

[weegee]

"Send in the crones."

Old crone:

[newfreep]

Did Sting attend a commie leader’s funeral? (I wouldn’t be surprised if he did)

[Vigilanteman]

Baby Kim ain't dead. But I heard he accidentally bit himself and contacted rabies.

[NonValueAdded]

ping for your perspective, local scoop

[Grunthor]

“SKorea dismisses rumours about NKorea leader’s death”

So....he didn’t die of “ronriness?”

[b4its2late]

I foresee another Yassar Arafat he’s dead, he’s ALIVE, he’s dead, he’s ALIVE.......!

[Danae]

Awe, hey now... I like Sting... he knows Tantric stuff... >.< and he sings.... and he’s rich... oh never mind, his politics suck.

[weegee]

I thought the Police had a song called So Lonely (a different So Lonely than was sung but the KimJong puppet in Team America).

The Police are currently on a reunion tour.

Only seems natural that they should play the Policestate State funeral.

[weegee]

He ate too much of this:

[dfwgator]

He must have returned to Planet Gyron.

[ExSoldier]

I hear that. I was the 9th Div G4 Assistant Plans and Ops guy when something (I never found out the cause) made the big satellite dish that monitors enemy communications at the Yakima Firing Center go BLIP! Right out of nowhere. It was like some kind of momentary jamming action caused it to freeze. We went on full war alert for about 48hrs back in the mid 1980s. Then the Ranger Battalion at Fort Lewis roared out one night from Grey Army Airfield (designed for helos but able to handle C130's) and the next thing we knew it was the Grenada invasion. Not many KIA's on that mission but one of them was ... my former platoon medic. He'd wanted to be a Ranger so bad. My buddy at the time was the S1 for the 2nd Ranger Bn and so I finagled a slot for the kid. He got his Ranger Tab and joined the outfit just in time to die in the invasion.

[ExSoldier]

Given his lifestyle I'd sooner think he was due to check in at the RED HOT MOTEL down below for either a heart attack or a good case of AIDS.

[SaltyJoe]

“there might be reunification which would be a drag on the South’s economy for decades.”

This would be exactly why the neighboring countries (and economic competitors) will push Korean reunification. American think tanks should already have calculated this and the appropriate response.

[BooBoo1000]

If he is really dead, I say break out the “ Kim chi””” um-mm good.

[sam_paine]

The appropriate response is that the Koreans SHOULD bear the entire cost of reunification and reconstruction.

The rest of the world already did their part by keeping the patient alive this long.

[rdl6989]

Ewwe, not a picture I want to see so soon after lunch.

[SevenofNine]

Would Team America song I am so roaney play at his funeral LOL!

[AmericanInTokyo]

When the The Chia Pet DOES eventually kick the bucket, we will indeed have to have a celebratory thread here on FR. Particularly if it involves a coup d’etat with them scrappping his Stalinism and coming into the Free World.

[AmericanInTokyo]

Where’s “Tiger”? He does not reply to Freep Mail. Has been MIA for over a month now.

[Revolting cat!]

The important question: If Dear Leader kicks off, what will be the handle of his successor?

[SevenofNine]

I hope he is okay just plain busy or something

[tanuki]

Thanks for that great story. I have yet to meet a veteran of that period who isn’t still relieved that we managed to avoid a Korean War replay the last year of Carter’s presidency.

[AmericanInTokyo]

he is OK, no problem. it is a long story. i just had contact now....

[SaltyJoe]

But, the Koreans might become even more isolated and worse in xenophobic ideology than before. The 5,000 year old culture won’t disappear, and neither is it a threat to the world. But if left to rot, the rotten will take control—again. And since no modern industrialized nation can exist on its own, a rotten government will turn to crime to feed its wants of luxury (the way some despots sell drugs and buy western toys with the proceeds).

I doubt that neighbors who are both friends and allies will allow suffering without first offering aid in the form of many different economic opportunities and even outright donations.

The Koreans will not bear the cost of reunification and reconstruction alone.

[SevenofNine]

I hope Tiger come back soon you don’t know if Chia Pet really suffering from poor health that got be celebration on FR site turn out be true

[SilvieWaldorfMD]

No word on DPRK’s official web site (I wouldn’t have expected an announcement from them anyway). I did find interesting, however, the selection of songs they have archived under “E-Library” —

http://www.korea-dpr.com/

[SevenofNine]

They got business in North Korea who knew that LOL!

[SilvieWaldorfMD]

They are quite the capitalists, too. Check out their “Shop” section....

[SunkenCiv]

Obama will need to hurry, or he’ll need a ouija board.

[ozzymandus]

That event was recreated at the time on Saturday Night Live as a skit titled “Korean Surprise Birthday Dinner.”

[hawkboy]

“Why is everybody so stupid? Why can’t they be interrigent, rike me?”