Kim Jong Il Death Watch

Here at OFK, many posts and comments have ruminated about whether the North Korean regime really cares about how it’s portrayed in the foreign media.  That may be a silly question to ask in light of South Korea’s unnatural obsession with its image:  the ridiculous Tokdo evangelizing, the many Chosun Ilbo stories about the popularity of Korean food overseas, or the mischaracterization as a “Korean Wave” of Korea carving out its own proportionate market share of global culture.  An obsessive image consciousness born of insecurity seems wired into both Koreas, and if you want further proof that North Korea shares this, look no further than North Korea’s actions over the last few days.

Last week, new video of Kim Jong Il at a memorial for his dead father provoked speculation around the world that His Withering Majesty would soon reunite with him in North Korea’s largest stockpile of preserved meat.  He looked awful, or depending on your perspective, his appearance inspired a blend of wild optimism and compassionate malice.

And while you could say the same about how Keith Richards has looked for decades, not even Keith went downhill this fast:

Then, papers around the world printed reports that Kim had pancreatic cancer.  It didn’t take long for North Korea to release new photos of Kim Jong Il visiting a tile factory, which brings us to this episode of our ghoulish vigil.  Judge for yourself if this is the image of a man who looks much better:

Most of these pics are from KCNA via Reuters; the clapping photo is from AP and KRT via APTN (whatever those mean).  The older pics for contrast are from Reuters.

The irony here is that for the first time in his life, Kim Jong Il could dress down and go slumming in one of his country’s cities without provoking either instant recognition or a spontaneous outbreak of cannibalism.  He’ll enter Hell looking as emaciated as one of his subjects.

Never let it be said that North Korea isn’t intensely interested in the chatter in foreign media, especially where questions about the health of the god-king could have fatal consequences for some.  One report by the AP’s characteristically credulous Jae-Soon Chang yesterday swallowed that bait, hook and all.  I’m not persuaded, but you have eyes of your own.  You’re also on your own when deciding whether to accept this report from Open Radio, according to which Kim is afflicted with some condition that’s causing progressive paralysis and has his personal masseuse in tow wherever he goes.  Note the absence of scare quotes.  Not even a man with such a bacchanalian past is likely to have lusty desires in his condition.  Open Radio also claims that Kim has taken up oriental medicine after being told that Western medicine could do no more.

UPI prognosticates on the likelihood that Kim Jong Il’s death could set off a power struggle and adds that North Korea is trying to import medical equipment via China, and that pancreatic cancer patients rarely survive more than a year.  OFK readers know that I’ve offered few firm conclusions about who will succeed Kim Jong Il, except that it won’t be Kim Jong Un for any practical purposes.  Jong Un is too young, too inexperienced, and too spoiled to rule a society that has spent the last six decades indoctrinating it with the guerrilla virtues of suffering, self-denial, and martial prowess.  Look at how Kim Jong Il is trying to shape his own legacy with a new biopic as he feels the reaper’s breath on his spreading bald spot:

Pyongyang’s state media said Wednesday that the country has produced the first part of a Kim Jong Il film that “will comprehensively deal with the immortal ‘songun’ (military first) revolutionary exploits performed by” Kim.

The first part is about Kim’s birth and youth, and how he advanced “military ideas and theories and tactics of President Kim Il Sung,” the official Korean Central News Agency said.  [AP, Jae Soon Chang]

I doubt that many North Koreans could be fooled into believing that Jong Un embodies those values:

“We only dreamed about having such shoes. He was wearing them,” recalled Nikola Kovacevic, a former schoolmate of the curiously well-heeled North Korean. Each pair, estimates Kovacevic, cost more than $200 — at least four times the average monthly salary in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, where perhaps 1 million people died as a result of food shortages in the mid- and late 1990s. [Washington Post, Andrew Higgins]

And if I’m wrong, why have we still seen no recent photographs of him?  Probably because of his resemblance to a college-age StarCraft geek who lives on Lotteria and Delimanjoo.

Related: Claudia Rosett, talks about the transition from Dear Leader to Dead Leader.  It can’t happen too soon for me.  In the short term, it probably won’t make any difference.  In the medium term, it would be the beginning of the end of The Cult of Juche and Songun.