So can we cross the word condition out of the thread title yet?
I’d say not yet. When we see that older news-lady crying like a maniac on TV while announcing his death, we’ll know for sure.
I wonder if there’s not a deliberate effort by intel agencies (not necessarily the US) to push to declare him dead even without confirmation. Push the story out, make North Korea respond to it.
Because NK refuses to talk, I’d say that there’s a fairly high percent chance that he’s in critical condition even if he’s not dead yet. He could be brain dead or comatose and they might be trying to figure out how power’s going to be distributed.
Poor surgeon. You know they’re going to make him suffer.
I don’t know, a bullet to the head is pretty quick…
But yeah, I wouldn’t be selling him any life insurance policies.
The interesting point is if (IF) he is dead, when it gets announced. Just looked it up and Stalin’s death was announced the day after he died (to borrow from another ruthless dictator) and Daddy Kim Il Sung got his announced about 30 hours after he died (per Wikipedia).
Might be working out the power-sharing (or grabbing) details behind the scenes right now.
Interesting times.
I think he comes back as a zombie and calls himself the Un-dead.
Pretty good Bob.
Perhaps the surgeon will be declared a hero and will be the next leader. Who knows. That country is fucked up worse that the USA.
Will satellite photos detect burial trenches for the failed surgical team?
Weekend at Kim’s.
[Yes I know his last name is Kim, not 1st…]
A good friend of mine is a North Korea analyst for the BBC (speaks on TV about N Korea etc and I know to be a good guy) and he’s retweeted this, which seems to put everything in context:
“Yay, the king is dead! The new king can’t be nearly as bad! What’s his name again?”
“Um, some young kid. The name is…Joffrey.”
Careful what you wish for. Regime transitions in despotic countries often come with a lot of bloodshed. We can only hope it’s internal bloodshed.
I appreciate why the BBC won’t report until there are reliable sources. But why do these things “make little sense”?
If Kim is in a coma, why wouldn’t it make sense for them to seek expert medical assistance from China?
And why is it so implausible that word of a medical team being sent from China could get out through China? China is not North Korea, they aren’t going to send a surgeon’s spouse to labor camp if (say) they violate instructions and let word slip to a cousin in Hong Kong.
South Korea said he’s alive and well. North Korea leader Kim Jong Un is 'alive and well' South Korea says, amid mounting speculation | CNN
Wait a week.
Or two.
No sign of Kimbo?
Then he’s as cold as a kipper onna cracker.
N. Korea said he wrote a letter which proves he is OK.
They wouldn’t hide Kim from public just because he’s dead; if he looks weak and unsteady on his feet, they’d hide him. There could be many several reasons why there’s silence coming out of North Korea, but clearly, it’s not ‘situational normal.’
What we have now is Scrodinger’s despot. Until the box opens we’ll never know. Curious about the train. My guess they moved a seriously ill Kim for therapeutic reasons. Or they moved a corpse for mortuary treatment. Or they tied shaky handed doctors to the tracks before moving the train. Or they moved the successor to a secure location while any rivals are exterminated.
I’m reserving judgment until I learn which letter he wrote.
And it was a perfect letter.
I don’t see what would the benefit would be to the North Koreans to hide his death, if dead he is. Surely they don’t have more reverence for him than they had for his father and grandfather, and their deaths weren’t hidden (at least not for long). And they’ll have to put out word of who’s the person in charge for foreign governments to deal with.