Kim Jong is Ill!

[Belkin]

Report: NKorea's Kim has pancreatic cancer - Yahoo! News

"SEOUL, South Korea – North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has life-threatening pancreatic cancer, a news report said Monday, days after new images of him looking gaunt spurred speculation that his health might be worsening following a reported stroke last year.

The 67-year-old Kim was diagnosed with the cancer around the time he was felled by a stroke last summer, Seoul's YTN television reported, citing unidentified intelligence officials in South Korea and China.

The report cited the officials saying the disease is "threatening" Kim's life.

Pancreatic cancer is usually found in its final stage, and considering Kim's age, he is expected to live no more than five years, the report said.

South Korea's spy agency said it could not confirm the report. Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung told reporters he knows of nothing of the report.

Kim's health is a focus of intense media speculation due to concerns about instability and a power struggle if he were to die without naming a successor. His third and youngest son, Kim Jong Un, has widely been reported as being groomed as heir, but the regime has made no announcement to the outside world.

Monday's report came after Kim last week made a rare public appearance, in an annual memorial for his late father and North Korea's founder, Kim Il Sung.

Television footage showed him markedly thinner and with less hair — only the second state event he has attended in person since the reported stroke. He also limped slightly, and the sides of his tightlipped mouth looked imbalanced in what were believed to be the effects of a stroke.

The images touched off speculation that he could have other health problems.

South Korea's spy agency has long suspected that Kim has diabetes and heart disease.

Medical doctor and professor Min Yang-ki of Seoul's Hallym University Medical Center has said diabetes usually leads to weight loss. The neurologist also said Kim's limping appears to be a result of a stroke. However, he said, overall it appeared Kim has recovered from that reported illness.

Kim walked on his own into a Pyongyang auditorium for last week's memorial at a normal pace and bowed while standing during a moment of silence.

North Korea experts said the latest images of Kim show he is still fit enough to rule.

The totalitarian leader, whose rule is buttressed by an intense cult of personality, knew that the people of North Korea would pay great attention to the memorial, and his appearance there is a message that he is in charge, Yang Moo-jin, a professor at Seoul's University of North Korean Studies, said last week.

Kim Jong Il took over North Korea after his father died in 1994 of heart failure at age 82, though he did not take on his father's title of president. He runs the North from his post as chairman of the National Defense Commission.

In early April, he presided over a parliamentary meeting where he was re-elected as leader.

The South's spy agency believes that Kim's 26-year-old youngest son, Jong Un, is sure to inherit North Korea, Seoul's Chosun Ilbo daily reported Monday, citing a recent report to the National Assembly by the National Intelligence Service.

The agency also reported that Kim Jong Il is expected to officially designate the son as his successor in 2012, the centennial anniversary of late national founder Kim Il Sung's birth, the paper said.

But the regime under the son is expected to be unstable and vulnerable to internal political strife as Kim Jong Il's brother-in-law, Jang Song Thaek, could attempt to snatch power, the paper said.

The spy agency declined to confirm the report."


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Good news or the greatest news?

[Lbelle]

The article says 5 years, but my friend's father got diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and died 3 weeks later. I'm sure Kim Jong has better doctors and will get the best treatment, but well...5 years might be a stretch. Good news for the USA.

[Kiro]

Fucking Hans Blix did it.

[Shuvo]

The article says 5 years, but my friend's father got diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and died 3 weeks later. I'm sure Kim Jong has better doctors and will get the best treatment, but well...5 years might be a stretch. Good news for the USA.

Not necessarily good news. He might have known about this for a while and decided to 'go out with a bang'... hence all the recent drama. Kinda scary O_o

[Null]

The article says 5 years, but my friend's father got diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and died 3 weeks later. I'm sure Kim Jong has better doctors and will get the best treatment, but well...5 years might be a stretch. Good news for the USA.

Sadly it quite the opposite. Hes pretty butt hurt over the situation.

He may feel he needs to accomplish more mayhem before his death. Also, many predict that he has set up predecessors that could possibly be worse then he.

[Kaeko]

Pancreatic cancer is pretty much, of all the cancers you can possibly get, the absolute worst in terms of survival rate. It can't be much higher than 5% 5-year survival rate for the general U.S. population.

Whoever takes care of him has to know this, so wouldn't surprise me if he got even crazier.

[Senoska]

Related: North Korea spells their own name wrong on their site (lawl.)

News & Articles

They spelled Korea wrong? Really?

[EternityEnd]

If you're refering to "ONE COREA NETWORK", it looks to be more of a play on words. It looks as if they meant "One core network", and added an A on the end to make it a pun.

[archibaldcrane]

At E3 one year, there was a huge booth of a bunch of Korean game companies.

The banner across all of them read:

POWER OF KOREA GAME!

(they don't do plural in Korea...)

[Vandole]

que qalbert's sig.


it was the first thing i thought of when i read this.

[Ramor]

Let's just hope he dies and the country becomes more world-friendly

[Shuvo]

Let's just hope he dies and the country becomes more world-friendly

I'm not so sure it would be so easy... the population their is seriously brainwashed. I think it require at least 2 generations and a less crazy gvmt after KJI's passing before the population would be ready to be part of the world again.

I remember seeing a John Steward interview with a wanted N.Korean guy who used to smuggle people out of the country into China. One of their tactics used to be to drop dissenting leaflets into the country with promises of freedom etc. KJI told the population that touching them would make their hands fall off, and the people actually believed it and started using sticks etc instead to dispose of them.

And on an interesting note, the proposed solution to this was to instead drop photos of KJI himself with the dissenting messages on it, instead of leaflets - the idea being that the population could not possibly believe that a photo of KJI could be tainted/dangerous. So then they'd have to deal with their KJI semi-religious beliefs contradicting KJI's propogranda.

So yeah. Majority of the population is crazy.

[Qalbert]

que qalbert's sig.


it was the first thing i thought of when i read this.

You rang?

[njitjk68]

Related: North Korea spells their own name wrong on their site (lawl.)

News & Articles

They spelled Korea wrong? Really?

Actually Corea is spelled correctly.

A popular myth to the change from Corea to Korea is that when the Japanese occupied the Korean peninsula they believed that since 'C' came before 'J', they would change the letter to a 'K' since 'K' came after 'J'. They didn't view the Koreans to be better than them.

However, if you are able to see South Korean fans at a sports game (ie. in the World Cup), they use the name Corea on their thundersticks, shirts, etc. Also, many other European countries refer to them as Corea.

[Atreides]

it should be pointed out that the website is only "semi-official", being run by the Korean Friendship Association (KFA), a decidedly pro-north korea international group run by this spanish guy Alejandro Cao de Benos. They organize trips to the north and spend a lot of time talking about how apparently life in North Korea is a lot better than western media portrays it to be. They're pretty much a mouthpiece for the regime, even though they're not based in pyongyang.

There's an interesting documentary on Youtube about the KFA, it's pretty nuts to see how foreigners could actually AGREE with the DPRK but yea:
YouTube - Friends of Kim - Documentary 1/8
Pretty fascinating documentary, I highly suggest watching it.

Anyway this news is unsurprising, although I'd hazard a guess and say that KJI's health is already really really bad. Between the bad photoshops (wearing a winter jacket to inspect the troops in summer, what?) and the fact that most dictators/communist leaders have doubles/impersonators for low-profile public events, he could honestly be dead already and they're just buying time to drum up support for Kim Jung-un.

[Odesseiron]

Usually, I don't wish death on anyone. The sooner the better with this guy. Not that it matters much as his son will be as bad.

[Alleya]

Let's just hope he dies and the country becomes more world-friendly

You know their president who has been dead for 15 years is still the president right? They run a Necrocracy over there.

I don't see things getting better in NK.

[Talka]

The only way to end the trouble in NK is to kill the entire KJI family and any powerful supporters.

Unfortunately, that would mean interfering with China, since the Chinese government is somewhat supportive of NK. ><

[Ikith]

Thread should have been:

"Kim Jong Ill"

[Senoska]

Kim's oldest son isn't fucking crazy and I think lives in Italy or some shit. Sadly I think the throne is going to his youngest who I don't think the world knows much about.