Vice director of HKSTV Hong Kong Satellite Television says North Korea leader kim jong un is dead. https://t.co/TWd0QwhxMj
— Jennifer Zeng 曾錚 (@jenniferatntd) April 24, 2020
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If this is true (and I have no idea that it is… but it’s a source with more skin in the game than the anonymous randos who started talking about this a couple of days ago), then there is additional uncertainty in the region.
Kim Yo-jong seems to be the presumptive successor.
She’s the one who got favorable headlines during the Olympics… an example:
I wonder if we’re going to get somewhat glowing headlines about her again.
Hey, maybe she’ll turn stuff around.Report
An alternative take:
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Which of the North Korean military commanders has the most tanks? I always bet on whoever has the most tanks.Report
Sure, but whomever he is will require a Kim figurehead. (Right? He’ll need a Kim figurehead?)Report
He’ll need a Kim figurehead?
Not if he has enough tanks and the will to use them on select parts of the civilian population.Report
I’ve never seen a tank with a figurehead, but now I want to.Report
If ships have mermaids, tanks have …?Report
Aaand just like that, North Korea loses its spot as Nation With Most Bizarre Cult Leader.Report
Need I ask who now holds the top spot?Report
Look around the world. If you can’t spot the Bizarre Dystopia, you’re living in it.Report
I’m not sure. The top guy in the UK looks to be setting up to run his economy through the coronavirus wringer, and then cut himself off from the continent with almost zero preparation. Does anyone know if the negotiators are meeting by Zoom or some such?Report
Of the many historians who have tried to figure out why and how the mighty Roman Empire fell, one theory is that the lead in their pipes slowly drove them mad. It isn’t confirmed, but no other theory is more compelling to explain the bizarre suicide of a magnificent culture that produced an Marcus Aurelius, followed by a Commodus.
Two thousand years from now, historians will likewise struggle to find an explanatory theory.Report
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VnAR2qB24yQReport
Commodus was a result of lead in their toilets.Report
The only thing scarier then a nuke armed dictatorship run by a cult like madman is a very unplanned transition of power. Gah. If Kim hasn’t provided proof of life really fast after this announcement then he a truly dead parrot. The pucker factor on the peninsula, China and the Pentagon is high. There are a lot bad possibilities ranging from Bad to Really Forkin Bad. Even the best outcome (NK dictatorship ends moving towards liberalization and openness) is fraught and in the short term very difficult.Report
He’s piningReport
This one is arguing that he is, instead, brain dead. One heck of a distinction.
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They know he’s brain-dead because he’s recommending his people mainline bleach.Report
Interestingly, nowhere in those screenshots does it say Kim is dead. I don’t even see his name. It’s just implied by the candles. The longer message is her responding to “fake news” allegations.
Furthermore, those Weibo posts seem to be deleted, and there’s a post saying she didn’t delete it and people must have complained to the authorities too much.
Despite the name, HKSTV seems to be a de facto mainland outlet, at least according to Wikipedia. The screenshots are also simplified Chinese.Report
It’s somewhat unlikely that Kim would have undergone elective surgery with North Korean doctors instead of kidnapped Japanese or Western surgeons, so a sudden health crisis is the most likely cause. But was the crisis mere chance or the result of some plot? Who might have cleverly taken him out? Who had a motive? Most folks would immediately assume that Trump is responsible, but I wouldn’t rule out Sony Pictures or other nefarious Hollywood studios or actors. Yet if the rumors about a coma are true, then it’s even more likely the work of the Otto Warmbier family: An eye-for-an-eye, a-coma-for-a-coma.Report
#KIMJONGUNDEAD is the unfortunate hashtag that Twitter is using to discuss these events.Report
*snort*
I might have to start a #NKgirlpower hashtag in support of Kim Yo-Jong, arguing that it’s time for a woman to lead to a psychotic totalitarian dictatorship.
If Kim’s problems were indeed arterial blockages, then it highlights the wisdom of limiting the national diet to grass and pine bark. Obviously their experiment at to producing a fat guy ended in failure.
#FightNorthKoreanObesityReport
Unfortunate?Report
The only thing worse than Kim Jong dead, is Kim Jong, Undead.Report
Looking forward to six months of this:
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She’s disappointed that Hillary didn’t kill the “right” people…Report
She deleted it.Report
Proof:
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On the one hand, damn, he’s not very old and has presumably a lot of medical care. On the other hand, damn, he did not take good care of himself.
But this kind of eventuality is one of the huge weaknesses of autocracies. Succession is a real problem.Report
New info coming in constantly:
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Possibilities:
1: News making stuff up.
2: Stalin used to announce his death to see who wanted to take over. He’d then kill them.
3: Wishful thinking.
4: Kim is dead and NK+SK are lying for stability.
5: Kim is doing this to make us realize what the world would be like without him, i.e. “who has the nukes?”Report
Yep, it was #2.
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Another theory with a surprising amount of persuasive power:
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HOLY CRAP!
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The original:
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Oh.
I guess this explains it.
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I’m not greedy. I’d settle for a one-thousand-woman pleasure squad.Report