North Korea’s top leader Kim Jong-un pays respect to his late father at a mausoleum in Pyongyang in this photo published in the Dec. 18, 2017, edition of the North’s ruling party newspaper Rodong Sinmun. The North’s media had been mum on the leader’s whereabouts on Dec. 17, when the entire country mourns the death of Kim Jong-il, raising curiosity among North Korea watchers. The photo on the right shows the basket of flowers Kim placed at the mausoleum. (Yonhap)
Offered for your consideration: pic.twitter.com/LlJ9RvVdpC
— Curtis Melvin 커티스 멜빈 (@CurtisMelvin) October 20, 2017
In fairness to Trump, he did not coin #Rocketman. The @Economist used term for Kim Jong Il, father of N Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, in 2006 pic.twitter.com/qSvsR90q1z
— Demetri Sevastopulo (@Dimi) September 19, 2017
That time when sushi chef Kenji Fujimoto (pictured) beat Kim Jong Il in a jetski race in North Korea (but lost in the rematch.) pic.twitter.com/v54EVmi8cQ
— Alastair Gale (@AlastairGale) August 30, 2017
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (C) bows before the tomb of his father Kim Jong-il at the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, which holds the embalmed bodies of Kim Jong-il and grandfather Kim Il-sung, in Pyongyang on Feb. 16, 2017, to mark the 75th birthday of Kim Jong-il. (Yonhap)
Members from various workers’ organizations gather in Pyongyang on Dec. 15, 2016, in a ceremony observing the fifth anniversary of the death of Kim Jong-il, the late leader of the country and the father of current leader Kim Jong-un. (Yonhap)
This combined image, provided by North Korea’s ruling party organ Rodong Sinmun on Nov. 28, 2016, shows its leader Kim Jong-un and other senior officials paying tribute to the statue of his later father Kim Jong-il during a visit to Samjiyon County at the southeastern foot of the 2,750-meter-high Mount Paektu, the highest peak on the Korean Peninsula. North Korea publicizes the county as the birthplace of the late leader. (Yonhap)
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (background, 2nd from L) watches a tile-breaking training session during a visit to a special operation battalion under the Unit 525 of the Korean People’s Army, in this photo released by the North’s Korean Central TV Broadcasting Station on Nov. 4, 2016. As is customary, the station didn’t mention the timing of his visit or the unit’s location. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)
Abstract – An Acoustic Analysis of Kim Jong-un's Speech For Examining His Emotional State (2016) https://t.co/jYNLcqvCRy
— Sino-NK (@Sino_NK) November 8, 2016
Here is an interesting read from Barbara Demick in the LA Times about the bizarre kidnapping of a South Korean actress and film director by the North Koreans that has come back into the public’s focus with the release of tapes that feature the voice of former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il:
The voice on the tape recording is squeaky and excitable, the speaker using such a strong dialect that it is difficult even for native Korean speakers to understand. What comes across is that the man speaking in a rapid clip is anxious about his own shortcomings, and his country’s.
The speaker, in fact, is Kim Jong Il, the leader of North Korea from 1994 to 2011. Tape recordings of him from the 1980s are featured in a new documentary, “The Lovers and the Despot.” Although Kim died in 2011 and was succeeded by his son, Kim Jong Un, the tapes provide rare insight into the psyche of the North Korean regime, both its audaciousness and its insecurity.
It is one of the strangest stories out of a strange country: In 1978, the South Korean film actress Choi Eun-hee was kidnapped during a business trip to Hong Kong and brought to Pyongyang on the orders of Kim Jong Il. When her former husband, Shin Sang-ok, a leading film director, went to look for her, he was captured as well. Reunited, they were coerced to make movies for Kim Jong Il, gradually earning his trust to the point that he allowed them to travel to Eastern Europe, then still part of the Soviet block, to shoot films and attend film festivals. In 1986, the pair escaped to the U.S. embassy in Vienna.
Shin feared rightfully that nobody would believe this outlandish story, so he and Choi secretly taped Kim Jong Il. With a microrecorder stashed in Choi’s purse, they captured Kim, who was then in charge of the film industry, pouring out his insecurities about how his country lagged behind capitalist rival South Korea.
“Why do all of our films have the same ideological plots? There is nothing new about them. … We don’t have any films that get into film festivals. In South Korea, they have better technology. They are like college students and we are just in nursery schools.”
In the tapes, Kim also confesses that he had ordered the couple to be kidnapped so that they could make movies for him.
“I asked my adviser, who’s the best director in the south? He said that his name is Shin.”
Later, Kim apologized to Shin for the mistreatment he endured from the agents who kidnapped him, and for the fact that the couple were kept apart for four years.
“I didn’t tell them about my plan to use you and collaborate with you. I just said bring them to me.” [LA Times]
You can read more at the link.
