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North Korean Defectors Puzzled, Moved by Roh Funeral
VOA News ^
| 05/29/09
| Kurt Achin
Posted on 05/30/2009 12:10:50 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
North Korean Defectors Puzzled, Moved by Roh Funeral
By Kurt Achin
Seoul
29 May 2009
South Korea's emotional farewell to former President Roh Moo-hyun brought much of the country together - including Koreans who were not born in the South. For North Koreans who have defected to South Korea, the outpouring of public emotion brought back memories of an earlier life - and reminders of how different their new life is.
North Koreans who have begun a new life in the South were alongside their fellow Koreans in Friday's tearful mass gathering in Seoul.
About 15,000 North Koreans now live in the South, having fled political persecution and severe shortages of food and medicine at home.
The traditional Korean chanting, and symbolic white clothing used in a public ceremony Friday to bid farewell to Mr. Roh are well known to Koreans on both sides of the Korean divide. However, other elements of the day's events appeared very strange to North Koreans who watched.
(Excerpt) Read more at voanews.com ...
TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: appeasement; defector; defectors; funeral; korea; nkorea; northkorea; roh; rohmoohyun; southkorea
Roh is more of a celebrity symbol, appealing to the young with his image of a lifetime rebel.
They hung up on such an image. A tarnished idol is still an idol, I guess. This idol worship can be only destroyed when its source in N. Korea is demolished.
To break blind faith requires decisive denouncement, not a series of mealy mouthed counter arguments.
To: TigerLikesRooster; AmericanInTokyo; Steel Wolf; nuconvert; MizSterious; nw_arizona_granny; ...
2
posted on
05/30/2009 12:11:15 AM PDT
by
TigerLikesRooster
(LUV DIC -- L,U,V-shaped recession, Depression, Inflation, Collapse)
To: TigerLikesRooster
Many parallels to “sheeple-ism” and “Obamania”.
3
posted on
05/30/2009 12:17:48 AM PDT
by
AmericanInTokyo
("North Korea would NEVER try this stuff were BUSH still prez" is a line of crap. They DID!)
To: AmericanInTokyo
Yes, Obama groupies are carbon-copy of Roh Moo-hyun groupies.
4
posted on
05/30/2009 12:21:46 AM PDT
by
TigerLikesRooster
(LUV DIC -- L,U,V-shaped recession, Depression, Inflation, Collapse)
To: TigerLikesRooster
cmon dude! they are changing and they contribute.
5
posted on
05/30/2009 12:43:43 AM PDT
by
mamelukesabre
(Si Vis Pacem Para Bellum (If you want peace prepare for war))
To: TigerLikesRooster
Defector Kim Ji-hee says the divisiveness in the South's politics gives her pangs of nostalgia. She says she feels anxious about the South's politics. It even makes her miss North Korea - even though there, she was very hungry and poor. In America she'd be called a...DemocRAT.
6
posted on
05/30/2009 12:56:01 AM PDT
by
AlaskaErik
(I served and protected my country for 31 years. Democrats spent that time trying to destroy it.)
To: TigerLikesRooster
She says she feels anxious about the South's politics. It even makes her miss North Korea - even though there, she was very hungry and poor. Sounds like Stockholm Syndrome. I think many Democrats also suffer from this.
7
posted on
05/30/2009 2:05:08 AM PDT
by
Always Right
(Obama: more arrogant than Bill Clinton, more naive than Jimmy Carter, and more liberal than LBJ.)
To: Always Right
Reminds me of the reports from Russia of nostalgia for Stalin.
Dynamic change evidently causes anxiety in those who have lived under totalitarianism.
8
posted on
05/30/2009 6:23:21 AM PDT
by
reformedliberal
(Are we at high crimes or misdemeanors, yet?)
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