It's Kim Jong-Il's Birthday - Hurrah - Or Perhaps Not

Yes, the absurd North Korean dictator celebrates today his 69th birthday, according to North Korean records, or his 70th if you prefer the Russian version...

Thanks to Wired.com's excellent "Danger Room" feature, I found the following amusing video which sets out to take the piss out of the ridiculous and incredibly anachronistic Stalinist régime that the ailing dictator heads.

I have written "amusing" and so it is, though not of course to the millions of starving, brainwashed North Koreans who are not part of the elite.

"Shapeless tragedies in taupe" was one fashion critic's comment on the dictator's clothing - this a response to a statement from North Korea claiming that it was becoming a world fashion leader...

Surreal.

Until the next time.

Another look at North Korea

In my recent piece about this secretive, pariah nation, the last Stalinist State in the world, I observed that North Korea is starving its population to build nuclear weapons and missiles.

Recent research however suggests that the "Dear Leader," Kim Jong-Il and the elite of the régime are managing to live very luxurious lives - whilst the remainder of the population relies on food aid. These facts are revealed by an organisation called North Korea Uncovered which has done a great deal of research about this mysterious state. I came across this via an article in the Daily Telegraph. The Telegraph piece includes a slide show which is well worth a look.

In my recent article I referred to the "deeply unattractive Kim Jong-Il, and so he is, but how about this fine fellow? He is the Dear Leader's eldest son, Kim Jong-nam and a possible candidate for the succession. A delightful prospect.

Picture source: Reuters-JNN via Daily Telegraph

Of course looks aren't everything are they? Perhaps he isn't a paranoid maniac?

Until the next time

North Korea

Hello again.

The recent news that North Korea has tested a nuclear weapon, and also launched a couple of missiles, reminded me that I have really given scant attention to this tragic failed state and its vergatorio of a ("dear") leader - the deeply unattractive Kim Jong-Il.

Yes North Korea, the country that cannot feed itself, yet has resources to build missiles and even nuclear weapons; not cheap undertakings even there.

Anyway a visit today to the excellent Dark Roasted Blend site, which I strongly recommend, provided a photograph perhaps even more terrifying than one of Kim-Jong-Il surrounded by all his brass-hats: North Korea's secret weapon...

Picture source: Dark Roasted Blend

They should be wearing sequinned swimsuits and be performing at the London Palladium - just like the Tiller Girls used to:

The Tiller Girls. Picture Source here

Altogether more wholesome I think and certainly less threatening.


Until the next time