The North Korean media has add a new bizarre claim to the already bizarre demonstrations following the death of the “Dear One,” Kim Jong-il — a petty dictator who starved his people and destabilized a region. Now the state-run media in “the second happiest place on Earth” is proclaiming that Nature is mourning the passing of the dictator.
The media is citing ice cracks in the volcanic Chon lake near his reported birthplace at Mount Paektu and a mysterious glow on a mountain top as evidence that Nature is weeping. They cannot say God is mourning since the state is atheist.
In the meantime, Western experts are finding evidence of less divine signs over the death. South Korean intelligence is saying that satellite photos show the train that the “Dear One” supposedly died on never left the station on the claimed trip.
In the meantime, the “Nature mourns” crowd is continuing to find signs including a major snowstorm that hit when Kim died. Then again, there is that other notable event during the same period called winter.
Source: BBC
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/13/north-korea-punish-mourners-insincere-kim-jong-il_n_1204377.html
North Korea To Punish Mourners Who Were Insincere
First Posted: 1/13/12 11:44 AM ET
Excerpt:
You’d better watch out, you’d better cry. You’d better pout, I’m telling you why: North Korea’s punishing insincere mourners, according to the Daily NK.
An anonymous source tells the Daily NK, a South Korea-based publication in opposition of the North Korean regime, that “authorities are handing down at least six months in a labor-training camp to anybody who didn’t participate in the organized gatherings” to mourn the death of Supreme Leader Kim Jong Il, and to those “who did participate but didn’t cry and didn’t seem genuine.”
Newser reports that mourners who came off as insincere have already been sent to join the 200,000 other North Koreans already in labor camps. An Amnesty International report published in May 2011 paints a dark picture of what’s in store at those camps — estimates suggest that 40 percent of inmates die of malnutrition.
The exact number of those to be sent to camps is unclear, reports the Daily Mail, but the paper estimates it could be in the thousands. (end of excerpt)
How can a post about the excesses of the North Korean media turn into an argument about Obama’s Middle East policy? I suggest that the owner of this blog moderate more aggressively to keep his comments at least moderately on topic. I find it offensive when people use everything on the Internet as a soap-box for their personal world views. Post your political commentary where it belongs, please!