To ask if anybody is hearing of the huge news coming out of North Korea?

[abdeether]

Kim Jong Un has apparently been taken severely ill after complications from a heart surgery. An American journalist tweeted that US officials have heard he is brain dead but she soon retracted the tweet saying she needs to wait for more info.

Would not like to be his surgeon!

I think it's very likely it won't open up sadly, if anything it will probably be a far worse situation as whoever becomes in charge will want to ensure their grip on the country, we'd definetly see some high level purges and more people in camps.
Realistically no country wants it to collapse and open up either, no one wants to deal with the financial fall out which would be huge and China doesn't want a change of regime to a more democratic one on it's doorstep either.

I read that there were rumours that China was preparing for a possible refugee crisis by buying up rice and cooking oil.

Thank you for the book recommendation, Charley50. Just downloaded it. I have a morbid fascination with NK. I hope they will be free one day, although goodness knows it would be horrible for them for a couple of years as they "caught up" with some of the modern world.

Apparently he maybe dead.

But who knows

mobile.twitter.com/chadocl/status/1253945322448932865

Theres something all a bit funny about this. The last few months theres been a few articles coming up about his sister being groomed as successor or a high position and now suddenly this. Maybe shes launched a coup with the armies support (against his opening up to the world, as happened to Kruschev). I suspect the virus is causing complete mayhem there.

awful, I’ve been down a rabbit hole reading about the camps there. It’s horrifying.

There must be something- he must be dead or gravely ill or he would have shown his face.

I haven’t heard anything about his Sister before, but I suppose it’s wishful thinking to expect anything approaching democracy. It will create such a power vacuum.

DarkNight have you seen Camp 14: Total Control Zone?

I don't think the average person on the street has a clue of the extent of concentrations camps in N Korea. Take a look at some satellite photos taken as well.

I have, what could be phrased, as a passing interest in North Korea and tbh his sister taking over actually scares me.

You can find the whole thing on youtube but I'll just post a trailer here so it doesn't get zapped.

Might be for the best of it might be a case of better the devil you know!

Regardless, North Koreans are treated like dog shit. I hope things change for them

I think we can all agree that what 2020 was really missing was a power vacuum in a nuclear-enabled hereditary totalitarian regime.

It's very bizarre that the American student's parents refused an autopsy

Someone could say he's walking around the main square farting the national anthem and there would be no way to verify it.

He has the cut of a man who would be really good at that @KatherineJaneway

ROFL @MockersxxxxxxxSocialDistancing

Just seen the lovely Professor Robert Kelly on the news

Kim Jong-un may be trolling, they are famed for this apparently.
they may consider using his sister to replace him.

but Prof Kelly, I missed seeing his family

@CinnabarRed

I think we can all agree that what 2020 was really missing was a power vacuum in a nuclear-enabled hereditary totalitarian regime.

😂😂 2020 is truly the experimental cookery of the deranged.

I see the usually ignorant judgement is abundant. Anyone who thinks this wouldn't be huge news really is ignorant.

Well, that and the egoistic lot that think it's alarmist or not news because it's not about nuclear weapons or Covid-19.

Heard this too OP. Don't think anything positive will come of it.

On the gout in a country of things. There's a fascinating TED talk by a woman who escaped, about how she didn't know he was not starving too, before she got out and learnt the word 'fat'.

I haven’t seen that documentary user I will check it out. I think I first read about the camps in a newspaper article and went from there. It defies belief things like that can exist. It’s a very effective mans of control though, knowing you and your whole family could be punished.

The silence from Pyongyang is deafening.

So maybe they've had their Caligula, and now we have to wait for Claudius then Nero.

Trump says Kim Jong-un is well - so that must be right then?

If Trump said the sky was blue, I'd look up to check.

It’s a very effective mans of control though, knowing you and your whole family could be punished.

I read article a while ago about a man who was arrested at the age of 10, along with his parents and siblings, for something his grandfather had done. There was another story too of a woman who was arrested with her parents, her children, and other relatives, she didn't know why until many years later (and after most of her family had died) that it was because the then-leader's wife had been married to someone else and she had known the wife at that time, the regime had rounded up everyone who knew about the first marriage to stop word of it spreading. The knowledge that you can be arrested for literally anything and that your entire family will be arrested too keeps people in line. It must stop effective resistance groups forming too as people would know they arent just risking themselves but also everyone they care about.

I think we can all agree that what 2020 was really missing was a power vacuum in a nuclear-enabled hereditary totalitarian regime

Awesome

You’re absolutely right