Saturday, September 27, 2014

Slow Saturday Special: Kim Jong Un is Ill?

"North Korean TV says Kim Jong Un is ‘not feeling well’" New York Times   September 27, 2014

SEOUL — Kim Jong Un, the North Korean leader, is “not feeling well,” a state-run television station reported this week, in a rare revelation about his health.

My mass-murdering president is an insane narcissist and you don't see the war-promoting media making a big deal.

In a documentary broadcast Thursday, the North’s Central TV showed Kim, who has not been seen in public in recent weeks, walking with a limp while visiting a factory in Nampo, a provincial town southwest of Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, last month. A narrator intoned about the tireless work of Kim, “our marshal, who lights the path of leadership for the people like a flame, although he was not feeling well.”

That could be anything. He might have sprained an ankle or something. It happens.

Central TV, a key channel of government propaganda, mentioned Kim’s physical trouble in the context of what it called his selfless dedication to his people.

We call it cable or network news over here.

Still, it was so rare for the news media in North Korea to discuss the condition of the supreme leader that Thursday’s report was widely picked up by the South Korean news media.

North Korea’s tightly controlled media never mentioned the health conditions of Kim’s grandfather and father, who ruled before him and had various ailments. Video footage and photographs never revealed a large cyst that Kim’s paternal grandfather, Kim Il Sung, developed on the back of his head.

Are they trying to imply imminent death for the tremendously young man?

--more--"

Related: CIA Fowles Up North Korean Assassination Attempt

I have not taken the idea very seriously lately, and maybe I should have.