Crackdown against those mourners who didn't seem genuine: North Korea

[Tshering22]

Crackdown against mourners 'who didn't seem genuine'

North Korea's hardline regime is punishing those who did not cry at the death of dictator Kim Jong-il, according to reports.
Sentences of at least six months in labour camps are also apparently being given to those who didn't go to the organised mourning events, while anyone who criticised the new leader Kim Jong-un is also being punished. Those who tried to leave the country, or even made a mobile phone call out, were also being disciplined, it has been claimed.

Daily NK says a source has claimed that 'criticism sessions' - which began after the official period of mourning - have now finished and tough sentences are being given out. The informant from North Hamkyung Province told the website: 'The authorities are handing down at least six months in a labour-training camp to anybody who didn't participate in the organised gatherings during the mourning period, or who did participate but didn't cry and didn't seem genuine.'

The source claimed the criticism sessions created a 'vicious atmosphere of fear', which meant the new leader, Kim Jong-un, was being accused of preying on the people now that he has taken power. It is unclear how many people face incarceration but the figure could be many thousands. Along with criticism sessions, the regime is also ramping up its efforts to enforce the cult of personality of the new leader. The source told Daily NK: 'Every day from 7am until 7pm they have vehicles for broadcast propaganda parked on busy roads full of people going to and from work, noisily working to proclaim Kim Jong-un's greatness.' Intensive sessions, to teach groups including the Union of Democratic Women and workers in factories and schools about the greatness of the new leader, were leaving people 'exhausted', the source added.

The regime has portrayed the young leader as the spitting image of his grandfather and has been dubbed the 'genius of geniuses' in military affairs, despite having no known military experience. Jong-il died in December aged 69 after 17 years running the world's most reclusive state. His death was announced on December 19, although he was reported by official media to have died two days earlier on a train journey to give guidance to his subjects.

He was succeeded by his youngest son, Kim Jong-un, who became the third of his line to head the world's only hereditary totalitarian Stalinist state. The secretive state said today it will enshrine 'eternal leader' Kim Jong-il's preserved body in the palace housing the body of his father, national founder Kim Il-sung, and labeled his February 16 birthday the 'Day of the Shining Star,' deepening its veneration of the late leader as it links his son and successor to the family legacy.

The country will also erect a Kim Jong-ilstatue and set up portraits of a smiling Kim and build 'towers to his immortality' across the country, North Korea said. 'Shining Star' is also seen as a reference to Kim Jong-il's 'military first' policy, which North Korea says his son Kim Jong-un will take up. The North's state media have sought since Kim Jong Il's death to show Kim Jong Un as a strong, confident military leader, but outside observers are watching to see if he can impose his will over the military and government as strongly as his father did during 17 years of absolute rule. North Korea has quickly handed Kim Jong-un a slew of his father's prominent titles and repeatedly connected him with his father and grandfather in an effort to add legitimacy to the young leader.

North Korea also has stepped up propaganda praising Kim Jong-il's works and vowed to uphold his policies in what is seen as an attempt to justify the hereditary power transfer. On Thursday, the North said Kim Jong-il's body will be displayed at Pyongyang's Kumsusan Memorial Palace, where the embalmed body of Kim Il-sung has been lying since 1995, a year after he died. Kim Il-sung is still known as North Korea's 'eternal president.' It was unclear whether their bodies would be in the same room.

The new name for Kim Jong-il's birthday, 'Day of the Shining Star,' is another link to Kim Il-sung, whose birthday is called the 'Day of the Sun.' 'Shining Star' also was the name given by North Korea to what it says was a satellite it launched into space in April 2009, but that the United States says was a long-range rocket test. The launch stoked regional tensions and earned North Korea international sanctions and condemnation. The new measures reflect North Korea's 'unanimous desire ... to hold the great leader Comrade Kim Jong-il in high esteem as the eternal leader of the party and the revolution,' the Political Bureau of the Workers' Party's Central Committee said, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.

The North's posthumous treatment of Kim Jong-il is similar to the treatment his father received, said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul. 'The cult of personality surrounding Kim Jong-il needs to be on par with the fact that his body is treated in the same way his father's is,' Yang said.

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Another reason why Communism is the scourge on this planet.

 

[rock127]

It's like "Cry or else we will make you cry"... no wonder most of the people crying were faking crying.

 

[Param]

Crackdown against mourners 'who didn't seem genuine'


Another reason why Communism is the scourge on this planet.

N. Korea is more of a hereditary Dictatorship than communist.

 

[Bangalorean]

N. Korea is more of a hereditary Dictatorship than communist.

Yes, but it was born out of insane ambitions and ideas inspired by Stalin and co. It was that vilest of ideologies called communism that brought so much suffering and pain to large swathes of the planet.

I feel so sorry for the NoKos. What sin have they committed that they have to undergo so much brutalization? The average NoKo man is several inches shorter and around 10 kg lighter than his SoKo counterpart. Such a massive difference between people of the same race! Unbelievably sad.

 

[Param]

Yes, but it was born out of insane ambitions and ideas inspired by Stalin and co. It was that vilest of ideologies called communism that brought so much suffering and pain to large swathes of the planet.

Joseph Stain was 200% totalitarian Dictator. He has nothing to do with the ideas of communism or Socialism.

It was Lenin and co who founded Communist state under Communist ideology. The Brutal period for SU started with the ascent of Joseph Stalin.

 

[rock127]

I saw the "Don't Tell My Mother" series on Doscovery on DPRK.It was amazing how the people were brainwashed and how their leaders are depicted as Gods even when they are responsible for the deeply improvished country.

 

[Bangalorean]

Joseph Stain was 200% totalitarian Dictator. He has nothing to do with the ideas of communism or Socialism.

It was Lenin and co who founded Communist state under Communist ideology. The Brutal period for SU started with the ascent of Joseph Stalin.

In my opinion, the precise definition of all these "isms" is unimportant. What is the precise idea of socialism, communism, etc., is textbook funda.

Everyone talks of Stalin. Yes, he was particularly brutal. But were Khrushchev and Brezhnev really benevolent and peaceful people? The East European dictators? Kim-il-sung? Mao?

Wherever communism has reared its ugly head, we see the human cost. Police states, tortures, midnight knocks, dictatorship, severe corruption at the top levels of society, nepotism - in short, barbaric societies! Communism has been a real plague to mankind. Really, Lenin's revolution should have failed, the world would have been a much better place.

 

[Param]

In my opinion, the precise definition of all these "isms" is unimportant. What is the precise idea of socialism, communism, etc., is textbook funda.

Everyone talks of Stalin. Yes, he was particularly brutal. But were Khrushchev and Brezhnev really benevolent and peaceful people? The East European dictators? Kim-il-sung? Mao?

Wherever communism has reared its ugly head, we see the human cost. Police states, tortures, midnight knocks, dictatorship, severe corruption at the top levels of society, nepotism - in short, barbaric societies! Communism has been a real plague to mankind. Really, Lenin's revolution should have failed, the world would have been a much better place.

I don't like communism.
But without the rise of Communism and Soviet Russia, world History would have been very different.

It is possible that we would still have been under British rule.

Brutality varied from country to country regime to regime.

Its the N.Koren leadership that needs to be condemned not just Communism.

 

[Tshering22]

N. Korea is more of a hereditary Dictatorship than communist.

Communism IS uncontrolled dictatorship. China just reformed at the brink so it was saved by a ruthless retaliation.

 

[Tshering22]

I don't like communism.
But without the rise of Communism and Soviet Russia, world History would have been very different.

Hardly. If Nicholas II could have been succeeded by someone better, it would have hardly made the difference to Cold War era. Nicholas II was an idiotic dreamer rather than a hard-nosed statesman and many a time, disregarded his court's advice. For which he almost ruined Russia and hence October Revolution happened.

It is possible that we would still have been under British rule.

You need to brush up your history skills man, no offense. It was NOT the Soviets that enabled our freedom. Soviets fought on the Allied side just like Gandhian forces did. It was Axis' manhandling of UK and heros like Neta ji that got us our freedom by screwing Colonial Britain inside out through bombings, raids and attacks.

If Hitler had not bombed UK to near extinction, we would still have been the bigger Diego Garcia today.

Its the N.Koren leadership that needs to be condemned not just Communism.

Pol Pot, Joseph Stalin, Tito, Mao? Do these names ring a bell?

Let's not get into debate about that. Communism is ideologically too ascetic to ever retain its purity and because of its structure, it is bound to become a tyranny at some or the other time. And that's what happened everywhere where there was communism worldwide.

 

[Ray]

The Pavlovian Conditioned Dogs experiment has not been so quite predictable in that the Govt diktat to cry orchestrated failed!

 

[Param]

You need to brush up your history skills man, no offense. It was NOT the Soviets that enabled our freedom. Soviets fought on the Allied side just like Gandhian forces did. It was Axis' manhandling of UK and heros like Neta ji that got us our freedom by screwing Colonial Britain inside out through bombings, raids and attacks.

If Hitler had not bombed UK to near extinction, we would still have been the bigger Diego Garcia today.

I never said SU enabed our Independence.
Al I meant was that, the rise of communist Russia and an anti capitalist anti west ideology caused turmoil in the world.

The Independence struggle benefited from all this turmoil. A stable first world would not have been conducive for Indian Independence movement.

Good that Hitler only bombed UK to near extinction. If he had succeeded in making UK extinct,our kind and our generation probably would not have existed.

 

[SADAKHUSH]

It is also called misery for majority while minority lives lavish life style. I hope one of these guys end up like the Romania Dictator.

 

[Tshering22]

It was Lenin and co who founded Communist state under Communist ideology. The Brutal period for SU started with the ascent of Joseph Stalin.

Please google Red Terror to clear this myth about Only Stalin and not Lenin.