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North Korean Leader Kim Jong Il Has Died Aged 70, South Korea On Emergency Footing
Just out on Yonhap:
- North Korea says its leader Kim Jong-il has died.
- N. Korean leader died of fatigue at 8:30 a.m. Dec. 17 during train ride: KCNA
From Daily Yomiuri:
- Cause of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's death is said to be a stroke.
And Reuters confirms:
- NORTH KOREA STATE TELEVISION SAYS KIM JONG IL HAS DIED
Great. More geopolitical uncertainty. Because as the Arab Spring has shown us there is nothing quite as stable as a transitory military government to fill a power vacuum (also see Thermidorian reaction during the French Revolution).
As expected the South Korean response is immediate.
- S. Korean gov't shifts to emergency footing on news of N.K. leader's death
South Korean on emergency alert following the news:
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) on Monday placed all military
units on emergency alert following the news of North Korean leader Kim
Jong-il's death.
The JCS said it called an emergency meeting
of officials handling crisis management and operations just after noon
Monday, after the North Korean media reported Kim's death.
Some more from Reuters:
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il died on Saturday on a train trip, a tearful state television announcer, dressed in black, reported on Monday.
The announcer said that the 69-year old had died of physical and mental over-work on his way to give "field guidance".
He had suffered a stroke in 2008, but appeared to have recovered.
The reclusive state had begun the process of transferring power to his son Kim Jong-un, believed to be in his late 20s.
And Yonhap:
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, who ruled the communist nation with an iron fist while pursuing nuclear weapons programs, has died, state media said Monday. He was 69.
Kim, who took over North Korea after his father and national founder Kim Il-sung died in 1994, "passed away from a great mental and physical strain" during a train ride at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, the Korean Central News Agency said in an urgent dispatch.
Bloomberg chimes in:
- A govt statement called on North Koreans to “loyally follow” his son, Kim Jong Un
- Kim, 70, died on Dec. 17 of exhaustion brought on by a sudden illness while on a domestic train trip, the official Korean Central News Agency says
- Kim probably had a stroke in August 2008 and may have also contracted pancreatic cancer, according to South Korean news reports
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Meanwhile, euro-dollar remains below 1.3.
With all of the saber rattling that has gone on in the area, it remains to be seen if this change will put tensions on hold or contribute to instability. Whatever happens, the markets will react, very quickly.
http://georgesblogforum.wordpress.com/2011/11/02/the-daily-climb-2/
I'm fucking stupid I guess, explain how this is communism rather than de facto monarchy.
It was always a misnomer to call what North Korea had "Communism" just like it was to call the former Soviet Union "Communism". No more so however then to calling the United States or Israel a "Democracy".
Fair enough, its a shame really he didn't live long enough to get all the USD from that rigged trade deal we just signed. I hope they bury his golf clubs with him, after all he shot 48 the first time he ever played.
The US was NEVER a Democracy. It is a Constitutional Republic. That is Ron Paul's whole argument and why He keeps on pointing out the constitution which is en effect a social contract to prevent rule by mob. The word democracy doesn't even show once on the constitution. Forefathers rule.
I don't really remember that being a point of contention. And this means what exactly other than you just recently figured out what the score has always been?
Ron Paul - Chicken Soup for Those Who Slept Through Civics Class..
He's the best option but that doesn't say ANYTHING, I'm still waiting for his take on reinstating Glass-Steagall & campaign finance reform.
shortonBrains !
That's special.. although it must be hard to type on a keyboard so encrusted with KY & BBQ sauce.
This is very bullish for radiation detectors.
And mine detectors, peg legs, eyepatches, razor wire, khaki textiles, in short a Keynesian wet dream.
More geopolitical uncertainty--yay! : ( All the classic global villains have gone adios---Saddam Hussein, Usama Bin Laden, Gaddafi, Hosni Mubarak, and now Kim Jong Il.
I wonder if South Korea is happy or nervous right now?
Happily shitting their pants I would imagine.
REST IN PEACE, COMRADE KIM!
MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU!!!
Global Times has news on it
So, does anyone know what went with that sweet members only jacket he used to wear?
What was it, a size childs large? Not much good for me but I am sure someone would love to have it.
Gold as a risk asset. Just so you know how fucked up our current investment world is.
This will throw the FX markets into chaos, usually does with Korean tensions/news:
0503 GMT [Dow Jones] The USD is well-bid following the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong II's. "The first reaction was to buy the dollar while selling the euro, the South Korean won and Asian shares," says Etsuko Yamashita, chief economist at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. "But there is great uncertainty about what is going to happen next. People can't take further action in the absence of more news," she adds. The EUR is hit hard as the single currency has already been pressured lower due to concerns about possible downgrades to European sovereign debt. "As long as downgrade concerns linger, I don't want to buy euros," says Yoshio Yoshida, a trader at Mizuho Trust and Banking; "the euro's recovery from last week's dive looks feeble." The EUR/USD is at 1.2991 after an earlier rise to 1.3049.
big fear. a Nth Korean coup against the son i.e generals. not good.
who's got the football?
lol (in a twisted way) How the End Begins tells Clinton actually lost the codes a few months on his "watch". The book had me after a few paragraphs, but my God he went on & on & on & on with horror story after absurdity. We so fucked
no football ... sheep bladder
no haggis for you!
hard to dial in launch codes on a digestive tract
The North Koreans are severe because they suffered like few people have ever suffered ! In the first place Korea is cold ! Those Canadian winds blow all the way across Siberia and Manchuria before they descend on Korea ! The Korean war was a meat grinder ! All the surplus weapons left over from WWII poured into Korea on both sides plus the new weapons of the arms race had Korea for a target range ! I really would like to see the North Koreans enjoy some of the good life we take for granted ! If you have a heart....do anything you can to end Communism in North Korea ! They have suffered long enough ! They do give excellent military parades....better than Stalin's ! Monedas 2011 Comedy Jihad Hoping For Happy Days For Korea !
You do ride the short bus.. Korea has had more shit than France how?
A large part of Korea is within range of Naval bombardment ! Aircraft carriers, WWII aircraft, ordinance without end, Sabre Jets, MIGS ! The whole peninsula was bombed incessantly ! The Chinese arrived to prolong the war ! Maybe the WWI trenches in France were horrific....but the whole country wasn't consumed like Korea was ! No comparison ! Much colder with less food !
Well shit's tough all over Toots.. Stop whining.
Th french never despair; they took 'le sang impur' from their trenches and made it into champagne. Bubbly brew of franco-german trench love fest!
Whitney Tilson was probably Long Kim Jong Ill.
Whitney hosted Long Kim in Houston and drove him wild singing 'one moment in time', til sun rose on Jong hill and they had blueberry pie for breakfast.
hORY cOW! zh BEAT THE gROBE AND MAIL BY FIVE MINUTES.
All right! I beat Tyler to the punch! See Comment 1993219 on another thread!
Ok ... but where did you get it?
http://www.alertsusa.com
BTW ZH : Is there a way of calling up a comment by its number in fast mode w/o having to scroll back for it? Just asking...
His Epitaph will of course read
I told you I was Il.....
All thanks go to Spike.
Bugger, see above :-(
maybe the meek will inherit the earth in 20-- ?
Julia Kim, my girl in SK. http://www.marys-touch.com/testimonies/Julia.htm
A non-event
How could they tell?
Bang Dai Ho: Today I share personal Ho story to ZH Dear Readers about Dear Leader.
I call my sister, Mee So Saad Ho, she tell me news of Dear Leader. I call my cousin Taek Longe Napp to find out how he died, and he heard Dear Leader was close friends with somebody called Toom Uch Ho. No relation we think, but he will call. So later, Bang will tell Dear Readers regarding my Taek on Toom Uch Ho.
Good. One less mouth to feed.
I say it's war because little boy is not ready for the big boy toys in the Playroom.
All your kimchee are belong to us!
Is dog meat considered a comfort food?
Long dog meat suppliers.
Dog. The Other Red Meat.
When does his sunglass collection hit eBay? Dibs Bitchez
Anagrams of Kim Jung Il
Jig Milk Nu - !
Jig Kiln Mu
Jig Kiln Um
Jig Link Mu
Jig Link Um
Jug Milk In - !
Jug Kiln Mi
Jug Link Mi
Jug Kin Mil
Jug Ink Mil
Anagrams of Kim Jung Un
Junking Um
Junking Mu
Gin Junk Um
Gin Junk Mu
Jug Mink Nu - !
Gum In Junk - !
Mug In Junk - !
Gun Mi Junk - !
Gnu Mi Junk - !
Nul King Jim
Jim KONG Li....was born in Xanadu son of King Kong Ji, in 1358, the year that the plague hit Europe. He was the last Yuan to drink koumis, the national drink of Mongols. After him every body drank cod liver oil and it started the inevitable decline of the Yuans as it was highly deflationary medicine, not expansionist like Kublai koumis. Their money devalued fast, the Yuan became Renminbi, monkey currency, and nobody wanted to sell you their daughter for a renminbi junk payment, precursor to the deadly USD centuries later.
That's when Jim KONG Li invaded Korea and started to raise a dynasty whose extracts we see today. Their Nukes now a symbol of those past days when koumis made their men feel strong and ardent. Needless to say, the North Koreans don't drink cod liver oil any more. They now all drink koumis and leave cod liver for the shushi guzzlers of Fuku land.
To come back to today land, the BIG issue now is if new Kong of North Korea stays friends with China land, original sponsors, and continues to shag goats or mares making koumis, that's fine and the world stays safe, as it's BUSINESS AS USUAL.
But if after his Swiss education the new Kong wants to become King of Wall Street and sing..."MAria, Maria, I just met a hamburger waitress called MAria, I've never known a sound so sweet to my ear as Mariaaaaa..."
THEN ALL BETS ARE OFF. THAT IS BETRAYAL OF THOUSAND YEAR TRADITION. Next you know, Kong will marry his MAria from South Korea and say, lets mate and date South to North and dissolve 38th parallel! Oh, Pork Chop Hill! Wow, the great, vanishing North-South divide. The world will never be the same again! And China will have to declare war on United Korea, to win back Kong to koumis land, for him to forget his hamburger Maria.
Formidable game change, all for a hamburger waitress! Could start WW3! Bitchez!
Lotta disrespect out there....chill my friends.
We shared our birthday April 15 .....it's very sad really.
Now the only Dear Leader extant is .....Karl Denninger
Lovely posthumous Christopher Hitchens quote.....Heaven sounds like celestial Noth Korea......
TAX DAY??? TAX DAY?!?!? Fuck him, fuck tax day and fuck you too now that you mention it.. What masochistic motherfucker announces his birthday is the same as Kim Jong Il & tax day on ZH?
Christ Hoper Hitchens
Monday December 19, 2011 Pyongyang North Korea:
Same shit different asshole.
Has Team America been notified?
Alec Baldwin?
It's sequel time!
A fine man,,, a great man... whooops, nevermind; my government substracts from the truth. Dude was about to nuke Kansas; sound the alarms and enjoy the military keynesianiam, his death is a problem,,,
Number of fatmen drops by 33% overnight in NK!
thanks God this bastard is dead. hopefully he had a painfull death. may his ass burn in hell.
The new Dear Leader
http://www.freakingnews.com/General-Kim-Jong-Un-Pictures-86692.asp
Where are the 'deep condolences' from the rest of the world? Only China has good manners?
License to Il
Exp 12/17/2011
Nonrenewable
Well there goes next years Nobel Peace Prize. Who now?
He started infinitely fewer wars than Obama... not that this makes him a good guy.
Newt?
Maybe not so ronery now?
Menta Li Ill
North Korea is run by a military Junta. They are behind the scenes and out of sight. Kim Jong IL had a lot less power than most think. His Father might have had more, but they will quickly replace him with another figure head. Just like after Mao Died. Move along folks, nothing to see here.
A- Will they force their sheeple to go through the (real or fake?) mass wailing and lamentation as witnessed on the death of the great leader?
B- Does the Dear Leader clone recently unveiled got the mojo to take the reins of power and keep the last 1984 dystopian Commie prison/country going strong into the future. Kid's like 15 or something?
C- Is North Korea actually the free(est) most free country in the world considering every adult male is issued an AK-47?
Hard to find the strength to rebel when you have grass and leaves as a major food group.
Meanwhile, Iraqi Quislings fear retributions.
U.S. will probably end up importing at least 50-100,000 of them.
http://news.antiwar.com/2011/12/18/left-behind-iraqis-who-helped-us-occu...
Most interesting development. Russia moving in offering 'cooperation to rebuild'. China standing by.
Glad to hear the scumbag is dead, hope he suffered.
Kim,
When you get to hell, save a spot for Corzine.
http://vegasxau.blogspot.com
I had the pleasure of serving a year on the DMZ opposite this asshat, rumored to love fast cars, American wiskey and blondes. While I was there, the South Koreans set up giant Christmas Trees facing the North on the hilltops, and had speakers playing Christmas Carols at ear splitting volume 24/7. We had to wear earplugs to sleep. In return, Kim sent over ballons that would pop after they crossed, containing cheap little propaganda pages out of the crapiest paper you can imagine. I still have one around here, with a Yankee soldier giant sized crushing Korea with his boot. He is wearing uniform and helmet from 1950's. They were, it seems, stuck in the past.
In short, good riddance.
I'd send flowers but his people would probably eat them.
"Kim died of a heart ailment on a train due to a 'great mental and physical strain' "
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_KOREA_KIM_JONG_IL?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-12-18-22-08-46
Got hammered and died on the shitter, eh?
Too bad.
Have a nice time in hell!
What? No North Korean spring?
Some background on the son from wikileaks.
http://goldandsilverlinings.com/?p=1790
Could be BS but I was just told that SK has gone on highest alert because 'Kim the Deity' must be buried at the highest point in Korea proper, which just happens to be in SK.
time for USA to leave DMZ and let both Koreas become one. Cost of keeping our presence in DMZ is over $35 billion per year. We can use that money at home.
Only in America. People who don't know who lives next door to them but celebrate a foreign leader passing away. Brainwashed MOFOs.
Too bad, I'm sure that TPTB over there have made sure the continuity-of-suck will continue for the N korean people. And that dude was thoroughly entertaining in his ecentricity. Now instead it will be at least as bad for the people, and far less entertaining.
Good bye, weirdo. Now its just a tragedy...
Quick, oppress the people before things get out of hand!
Today was a good day for someone else to die!
Opening line is +/- May 1 2012 the first KFC opens doors in Pyongyang Now accepting all action
KFC = Korean Fried Cat?
Err 4 legged chicken, how do you tell?
You can't.
Cats used to called (half-jokingly --- but only half) "Alley Chickens" in the Korean-restaurant-heavy part of Anchorage.
If it tastes good who fucking cares? Fuckin food chain Bitchez. I ate Guinea Pig on a stick in Peru, brains & heart & I don't even know in Rome and a tongue sandwich at Wolf's on 6th Ave and it was all good. We iz critter eatin' critters..
I've also eaten the cuy-on-a-stick (but in Ecuador), curried brains, raw sea urchins and sea squirts, pit-roasted goat, deer heart stew, beluga whale muktuk (skin and blubber cubes), Polish blood sausage, lutefisk, raw herring roe on kelp, jellied moose nose, and live stinkbug tacos in Mexico ---- and liked it all. There's not much that fazes me anymore when it comes to eating strange meat and strange animals.
Fresh Uni is one of my favorite things ever, one of these days I gotta try fresh coconut crab from Fiji. I'll draw the line at bugs, can't help it when they fly in my mouth when I'm on my motorcycle but other than that I'll take a pass. Maybe after some shots I'd pop a candied grasshopper but I'd need booze.
There is a stinkbug that lives in Alaska that I run across now and then during the summer that looks just like the taco-useful version from Mexico, but instead of the herbal-minty taste of the Mexican bugs, ours taste and smell exactly like cilantro! I have even gathered a few, crushed them, and used them in chili or guacamole to add a cilantro flavor --- nobody would ever know the difference.
However, I do draw the line at beets --- the vile vegetable spawn of Satan himself!
How is it up there? I'm in the high country above Yosemite, my wife & I talk about getting another place, she's got family in Queen Charlotte Is. & I've never been further north than that, haven't had the chance. Got a feeling if I went I might not come back.
And I, sadly, have never been in your particular neck of the woods, but I bet it is beautiful.
I love living in Alaska, as much for the casual, non-conformist attitudes as for the scenery and easy access to many awesome wild places. When I visit relatives in the Lower 48 (mostly Midwest rust-belt cities), I feel my soul just being sucked away by all the shallow, mindless consumerism, the lack of hope, and the rampant spineless, kneejerk conformity. Hawaii (at least the Big Island) is very socially comfortable to me as well, but moving to Alaska for me was like spiritually coming home.
We oughtta do a home & home.. I'm a San Francisco native, this is less than 3 hrs from The City and its definitely Home, God's Country, I have the similar spiritual connection, those who 'get it', John Muir, Ansel Adams in particular describe the Sierra far better than I. But the snow pack is less & less every year, civilization seems a little close sometimes and with everything else we think about spending time further out in bigger country. The winter I don't know about though, its not the cold but the no daylight thing, I dunno what that would be like.
I think that you, in our brief exchange, understand me better than almost everyone that I left behind in the Midwest years ago --- and most of whom still don't "get it" now.
Having been born and lived up near the Canadian border anyway, the short winter days are not terribly different for me now than what I grew up with --- just somewhat shorter yet. I suppose it can get a bit depressive at this time of year (mainly for the length of the winter, more than the short days), but the key is to keep yourself busy throughout the winter --- those old-time miners and prospectors, for example, were not infrequently driven to suicide by the relative lack of anything meaningful to do during the long winter. I have had to learn that lesson myself, too, sad to say. But on the other hand, the long days of summer (or constant daylight, depending on exactly where in Alaska one might be) is a great compensation, and one that I very much appreciate. I have experienced a three-month-long full "day", and loved every minute of it.
Hey thanks, flatlanders & city folk never did get it and never will. Thankfully so or else it'd be way too crowded in all the best spots. I knew I was a mountain guy the first time I went to Yosemite when I was a kid. Its weird, I proudly consider myself an atheist but I found a connection to God or the Buddha or something there & it never left & never will. Teddy Roosevelt got it big time, not a whole lot of Americans do. So bizarre because this is such a great natural country, what the hell happened?
That's what I was thinking with the winters, I got no clue. Its funny with the goldbug city slickers here, I doubt highly many ZHers go out & pan their streams every summer.. Nobody has any idea how much gold there still is up here, if I had to guess there's gotta be 10x more than S. Africa & if there's that much here there's 10,000x that up in Alaska. Just fucking around with a screen I've pulled more than 20oz off my property since I moved here less than 10 yrs ago. Aside from anything else its relaxing and a good time, just wander up with a six pack & some sandwiches, sometimes I'll fish sometimes I'll pan and I rarely come back emptyhanded either way. Country life.
I agree with you 1000% in the first paragraph.
As for native gold, I am somewhat embarrassed to say that I have never retreived any myself --- not for lack of interest, though! But with so many outdoor-related activities in Alaska, one has to really prioritize due to the shortness of the spring/summer/fall season, particularly when one's business is seasonal, as mine is. I would LOVE to have a little leather bag with just one or two ounces of raw gold that I had panned or sluiced out myself, but not knowing anyone with a good mining claim (or who wants to share their gold, lol), it just hasn't happened yet. But I have seen a man walk into a local gold-buying dealer with a gallon Ziploc bag at least half full of gold --- and yes, he had to hold it with both hands, and I could tell that it was HEAVY! I wish I had a camera that day!
What I would really find interesting would be to go out to Platinum and pan for native platinum, of which I hear there is still some around if one knows where to look for it. But that is far out in the Bush, right on the Bering Sea coast, and not an easy or inexpensive journey by any means, as is so much of traveling in this state off the small road system is. On the other hand, I can drive all of 1 or 2 miles to a trailhead and within 2 hours be far up on the mountain tundra with nobody even remotely near by, and spend the afternoon picking wild berries in complete silence and solitude. I can get into a Zen-like trance state doing just that.
Watching the Disney Earth DVD, some of this had to have been filmed in AK. AWESOME COUNTRY, totally jaw dropping. You got the true expeditionary spirit, sir. I salute you, and I gotta spend a summer up there minimum before I'm too old to really do it.
I hope you can make it up here some day, and if you ever do, I would be happy to meet you.
I as well, lecoeurdevie@yahoo.com
About time! May that cretin rot in hell. And hopefully the evil government that socialist economy will collapse too!
How much worse could that economy get? Fuckin thing collapsed in 1990
I hear Kim Jong Un has some very small shoes to fill.