Filed under: China, Dictatorship, Empire, France, Germany, Japan, Kim Jong-il, Madeleine Albright, north korea, Nuke, putin, Russia, south korea, Uncategorized | Tags: Pyongyang, Toshimitsu Shigemura
Kim Jong Il: dead, alive or using a body double?
Russia Today
September 9, 2008
The health of North Korea’s dictator, Kim Jong Il, has come under the spotlight, just as his country celebrates 60 years since its foundation. The leader did not attend a military parade dedicated to the state holiday. The 66-year-old has not appeared in public for more than three weeks, leading to various rumours emerging. A Tokyo professor even claims Kim died five years ago.
Western media claim that he is ill, while a local newspaper in the South Korean capital Seoul reported Tuesday that Kim collapsed last month.
It is not known how serious the condition of the North Korean leader. According to South Korean diplomats based in North Korea’s capital Pyongyang, Kim lost consciousness on August 22. After that a group of five Chinese doctors traveled to Pyongyang and is now taking care of him. South Korean officials also say the 66-year-old leader suffers from obesity, diabetes and a number of other diseases.
South Korean media, though, doubts the North Korean leader sought medical help from China as before they mainly looked to Germany, France and Russia.
At the same time, Seoul intelligence data claims the North Korean leader has health problems but is still capable of fulfilling his duties.
A new book by Toshimitsu Shigemura, a professor at Japan’s Waseda University, recently added fuel to the long-lasting speculation. In “The true Character of Kim Jong Il” Shigemura claims Kim Jong Il died in the autumn of 2003. Shigemura believes this happened within 42 days after September 10 when the North Korean leader was last seen in public.
In the years that preceded his “death” Kim undertook some big moves influencing the country’s relationship with the outside world. These include the June 2000 summit with South Korean President Kim Dae Jung, a visit from Russian leader Vladimir Putin the following month and then U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in October 2000. August 2003 saw the opening of six-way talks on halting North Korea’s nuclear weapons programmes.
According to the professor, a group of senior officials took power in their hands willing to protect their positions. The role of “Kim Jong Il” went to several of his doubles controlled by one of the “puppet-masters”.
There has been no reaction from official Pyongyang but the association of Korean residents of Japan strongly denied the claim.
Filed under: 2008 olympics, beijing, China, Dissent, human rights, Japan, Kim Jong-il, north korea, olympics, Protest, south korea, tibet, tibet protests, torch relay, UN, Uncategorized | Tags: Pak Hak Son, Pyongyang
North Korea gives Olympic torch a rare welcome
Haroon Siddique
London Guardian
April 28, 2008
The Olympic torch has made a peaceful procession through North Korea, where the regime is an ally of China. In a reversal of protests that have dogged the flame’s world tour, thousands of cheering people lined the 12-mile route through the capital, Pyongyang, waving pink paper flowers and small flags with the Beijing Olympics logo and chanting: “Welcome, welcome.”
The scenes were in stark contrast to those seen yesterday in the South Korean capital, Seoul, where clashes broke out between 500 Chinese students and about 50 demonstrators criticising Beijing’s policies.
The students threw stones and water bottles as some 2,500 police tried to keep the two sides apart. A North Korean defector covered himself with petrol and tried to set himself on fire, but police restrained and carried him away.
The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, was not seen at today’s event in Pyongyang. Pak Hak Son, chairman of the north’s Olympic committee, told Japan’s Kyodo news agency that despite his absence Jong was “paying great interest to the success of the Olympic torch relay”.
Protests against human rights abuses and state repression were notably absent on the route through North Korea, which has criticised the disruption to the flame’s progress elsewhere and supported Beijing in its crackdown against protests in Tibet.
“We express our basic position that while some impure forces have opposed China’s hosting of the event and have been disruptive. We believe that constitutes a challenge to the Olympic idea,” Pak said.
The UN children’s agency Unicef had been asked to participate in the North Korean leg of the relay but withdrew in March, saying it was not sure the event would help its mission of raising awareness of conditions for children.
noworldsystem.com 