Kim Jong-Un Dead? That's The Rumor In the past two hours, Twitter has exploded with unsubstantiated rumors that the new North Korean dictator died in Beijing today and that a coup is underway in North Korea. All rumor of course, and one that appears to have been started on China’s twitter-like platform Weibo. As the story goes, a couple assassins barged into Kim’s room in Beijing and shot him, before being shot and killed themselves by bodyguards. Twitter user ChristianJMay says the rumor is “based on news that a host of blacked out cars have descended upon embassy in Beijing, where he was visiting.” User Rocco_Castoro has a different source of information, tweeting “This just in: Kim Jong-un’s cause of death was being force-fed hotdogs and having a basketball bounced off his head repeatedly for 20 hours.” We’ll find out soon enough if Little Kim has followed his father Kim Jong-Il into the hereafter. If he is alive and well, this day of rumors will mark the real beginning of his rule. Kim was expected, after his father’s death on Dec. 17, to abide by a 100-day mourning period, like his father did upon the death of Kim Il-Sung in 1994.Yet an article in the Korea JoongAng Daily this week notes that Kim has already come out of mourning, and has been seen traveling North Korea, visiting tourist traps like “the Seoul Ryu Kyong-su 105 Guards Tank Division of the Korean People’s Army in Pyongyang.” Then there’s this heart-melting passage: Kim Jong-un is already showing a different public personality than that of his father. While Kim Jong-il maintained a distance from the public, wearing sunglasses and rarely having physical contact with the public, the young successor doesn’t hesitate to act friendly and intimately with the people. That is the kind of behavior associated with his grandfather, Kim Il Sung. In a documentary aired recently by the North’s Korean Central Television, Kim Jong-un’s broad smiles and bold gestures were shown. He whispered in the ears of other soldiers and held the hand of a wife of a military leader. During a visit to an Air Force unit on Jan. 20, he hugged soldiers. When he visited Mangyongdae Revolutionary School on Jan. 25, Kim touched the faces of students and tasted soy sauce. Soy sauce! Who doesn’t like soy sauce? I would have advised him to tuck into a big bowl of kim-chi, the spicy pickled cabbage that is Korea’s equivalent of apple pie with ice cream. Still, maybe this Kim is not so bad after all. He’s even said to love the iPad 2 and is set to allow Egyptian mobile operator Orascom Telecom to set up internet connections in North Korea. If Kim is dead, if there is a coup underway in North Korea, it’s likely because after his magnanimous visits to their bases in recent weeks, the army decided that Kim is too much of a softie to keep the North Koreans sealed tighly in their gulag. link
Kingcheetah, you have misread. An understandable (but regrettable) translation error on your part. King Jong Un is not dead and the posts didn't mean to convey such, rather they meant to say that he is "undead." What only remains is whether he is of a relatively harmless sort (a zombie, slow, shuffling and easily dispatched when by himself), the more formidable wight, or a far more powerful and dangerous creature, such as a succubus, a dhampir, or some other foul beast of which I dare not even speak the name.
That's the dilemma of a complete military rule. The late Kim Jong Ill, while enjoyed far more power than a democratic leader, was powerless to make extensive reforms. Kim Ill Sung accended through his charisma. Ill was just born into it. His power completely lies within the status quo and the backing of the military. I always find it funny that people makes Ill to be some diabolical villain when he's just a small and petty figure head. As with today, it's not Kim Ill Un we should worry about. It's their millitary system and the unknown generals.
