Some grief over death of North Korea leader false, defectors say

[IDemo]

By Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times

December 21, 2011, 4:23 p.m.
Reporting from Beijing—

Chu Sung-ha says he knows for sure that some of the people shown sobbing on television over the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il are faking it.

Once, he was one of them. As a 20-year-old student at Pyongyang's prestigious Kim Il Sung University in 1994, when North Korea's founder and the school's namesake died, Chu and his fellow students were used to illustrate the nation's grief.

Television cameras were rolling when the students were ushered into an auditorium to be told the news. And though most were genuinely overcome, those who weren't knew enough to sob on cue.

"I just bowed my head so nobody could see I wasn't crying," recalled Chu, who now lives in Seoul and works as a journalist. "There were cameras on campus and I knew I would be caught on television."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-korea-fake-mourning-20111222,0,1770642.story

Shocking! Dear Leader deserves better than this! <-/satire icon->

[orpupilofnature57]

1. Could you imagine if Shrub had died in office? Repukers

would of been on a witch hunt for the Un patriotic.

[Ikonoklast]

3. I would have been crying for real.

That would have meant President Cheney.

[orpupilofnature57]

4. I'm crying at the thought of it.

[Ikonoklast]

6. Makes one kind of sick at the very thought of it.

That is the stuff of nighmares.

[IDemo]

8. Or at least the official installation of the Dick who'd already been running the office n/t

[orpupilofnature57]

19. Agreed.

[virgogal]

2. No surprise there. God knows what's ahead for these poor people.

[orpupilofnature57]

5. +1

[Ikonoklast]

9. Looks like the military is not going to relinquish their choke hold over that prison nation.

They are the ones benefitting from a starving population, and no way will they allow market reforms and the resulting personal freedom that would follow come to pass.

The military needs a cowed populace, starving and fearful, or their number is up.

It is all going to end rather badly, I fear.

[NYC Liberal]

16. And it's doubtful Kim Jong-un will be able to control them.

He has no military service, is young, and only started taking an active role in the last 2-3 years.

Whereas Kim Jong-il was groomed for almost 10 years before he took over.

[DCKit]

13. "If I don't cry, they'll kill my children" nt

[Cid_B]

14. Ooh ooh.. I know...

Starvation, torture and overall misery is a pretty safe bet...

[joshcryer]

7. Eh, not to diminish these defectors' opinion, but most anyone who watched the video...

...could've surmised that. It was really forced, the video itself was painful to watch for me for that reason. I felt so bad for them.

[liberal N proud]

10. Oppressed people who do know any different. n/t

[eppur_se_muova]

11. Well, DUH. These people aren't idiots. No matter how much their gov't tries to stifle communication

they know they are worse off than their southern neighbors, at the very minimum. A few may be truly brainwashed, but if the NK gov't fell it would be even less lamented than the old USSR (which still has its nostalgic supporters).

[gratuitous]

12. And what's our excuse?

We still have droves of people in an ongoing necrogasm over the demise of Ronald Reagan.

[Ikonoklast]

17. They saw him as a lovable Grandpa, not the shallow, bigoted rotten shit he actually was.

A perfect Republican.

[JI7]

15. if/when NK can get some freedom in the near future, it will be very interesting to hear

what the people have to say.

we already know a bit. but i'm sure there is a lot more that will be uncovered .

[piratefish08]

18. here's a truthful and frightening look into North Korea - the guys at Vice Guide are nuts.

http://www.vice.com/the-vice-guide-to-travel/vice-guide-to-north-korea-1-of-3



there is another documentary on this website studying North Korea's selling of slaves into the timber camps of Siberia where all the wood for our cheap particle board furniture comes from. eye-opening stuff.....