What's going on in NoKo?
Kim Jong Il's pictures are being taken down.
In North Korea, portraits of Kim Jong Il have been taken down in what may signal significant and possibly far-reaching changes in the Stalinist leader's personality cult. The apparent downgrading of Mr. Kim's public image has analysts wondering who has ordered the changes, and why, and whether they mean anything.He isn't even being referred to as "Dear Leader" anymore.
And what's going on with these leaflets?
On November 18, the Sankei Shimbun of Japan reported in a dispatch to Seoul that a leaflet headlined, “The 10 lies of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il,” criticizing the North Korean system, were distributed at over 50 locations including Pyongyang, Nampo, Shiineuyju, Choengjin, and Hamheung.I mean, that's not usual. Pyongyang ain't the Vegas strip or Times Square or the Drag here in Austin. You don't just see many anti-government leaflets in a totalitarian state.
Who knows what's up? Me, I'm going to hope that history's starting to repeat itself, and that it's about 1988 in NoKo. But just to reiterate: I'm just some dude sitting in a chair at a computer in a mid-sized American town about 8000 miles from where the action is. So take my bloviating for whatever it's worth.
Posted by Matt at November 18, 2004 1:18 PM
