Very Recent

Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, greatfully donate to a full-text RSS use so we can continue developing it.

PYONGYANG Its a cold, crisp, balmy morning in a capital of a Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK), as well as there could not be a some-more critical diversion in town. Billboards temperament a numbers 2.16 [February 16] customarily flashy with outrageous red flowering plants have been all over a place. The flowering plants have been a usually splashes of full color against drab grays as well as browns. They have been of march kimjongilia, a mutated begonia programmed to bloom usually upon when else 2.16.

For Pyongyangs 2 million or so residents, a time to party. Today is a 68th birthday of a General Secretary of a Workers Party of Korea, Chairman of a National Defense Commission as well as Supreme Commander of a Korean Peoples Army comrade Kim Jong-il.

Kim Jong-il, aka a Dear Leader, has been a limit leader of North Korea for roughly 12 years now. But hes not a president (the titular head of state is a chairman of a presidium of a Supreme Peoples Assembly, Kim Yong-nam.) A pass reason is which hes not unequivocally fond of a endless, obligatory diplomatic turn of assembly unfamiliar heads of state.

The in cold blood baleful Western media account would lead a single to believe which upon this eventful day a adults of what is customarily depicted as a Stalinist/communist/terrorist/totalitarian/insane/rogue/axis of immorality gulag would be a single step short of immersion a battery of commemorative missiles over South Korea, Japan or a west seashore of a US for which matter, not to discuss control another chief test. Reality yet bears no axis of immorality overtones.

Holiday upon ice
The day starts with an early morning visit to a imposing bronze statue of president Kim Il-sung aka a Great Leader, a father of a nation upon tip of Mansu hill. It is strictly twenty meters high ! (and pos itively looks bigger). At a end of a Japanese colonial period, this site housed a largest Shinto shrine in Pyongyang; to illustrate a Great Leaders statue had to be no-holds-barred imposing.

Everyone as well as his nearby resident seems to have come, bringing flowers, bowing respectfully, as well as always arriving in orderly arranged groups, from soldiers as well as high-ranking officials to encampment elders as well as a unequivocally good-looking traffic ladies in their blue winter jackets. Higher ups arrive with their wives in black Mercedes or Audis, a group in black suits, a women sporting extremely superb as well as colorful versions of a Korean inhabitant dress.

Then a off to an general figure skating exhibition not competition which includes athletes from England, Switzerland, Ukraine, Belarus as well as even a Russian, who was a bronze medalist in a 2006 Turin Winter Olympics, a a a single preferred of a crowd. Call it Pyongyangs counterpart to a 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. The real stars yet have been a locals skaters, kids included, as well as their apotheosis routine temperament a North Korean dwindle as well as a Juche dwindle with a hammer, sickle as well as flame, symbolizing workers, peasants as well as intellectuals who, according to Kim Il-sung, have been a true masters of society, as creators of both element as well as spiritual wealth.

Next stop is a 14th Kimjongilia Festival a wacky, dazzling flowering plant extravaganza with arrangements offered by everybody from troops organs, ministries, inhabitant agencies as well as cooperatives to businesses, abroad Koreans, general organizations as well as unfamiliar embassies, all featuring a hybrid red begonia (not a inhabitant flowering plant of North Korea though; thats a magnolia). The flowering plant of Kim Jong-il was created by a Japanese botanist in 1988, symbolizing, according to a central narrative, wisdom, love, justice, as well as peace. The Great Leader Kim Il-sung, of course, h! as his o wn flower, a Kimilsungia.

The hall is positively packed. Everyone seems to have a portable digital camera which somehow materialized from China, as well as total family groups as well as reams of schoolchildren have been fervent to poise for a flowery print of ruby red Kimjongilias enveloping globes, displayed underneath depictions of high-speed trains, underneath emblems of a Dear Leader himself as well as even flanked by mini-replicas of Taepodong missiles.

Then a time for a mass open-air dance in a block flanked by government buildings well, not unequivocally mass; a few hundred couples, a group in dark suits as well as a women in white, jade green, light pink, cream or black chima (skirt) as well as jogori (blouse), a evocative of a fairies in a heavens Korean inhabitant dress. They have been all dancing to traditional songs blared to ear-splitting level by what could be dubbed a North Korean version of a Jamaican receptive to advice system.

The few steps have been unequivocally simple, involving a bit of handclapping; a few gaping foreigners have been welcomed to stick upon a fun. The locals perform it all stone-faced, nonetheless not robotically. Sex in North Korea is not usually in a air. Schools have been segregated by sex. Even holding hands in public is considered unequivocally improper behavior. Unmarried singular mothers have been substantially non-existent (but if it happens, a baby is meticulously taken caring of by a state usually as Korea fight orphans were.)

The prominence of a day is synchronized swimming in an arena in a sports village. The blow up ballets, achieved by dozens of teenagers, rival Chinas. Kimjongilia panels adorn a arena. Party elders as well as higher ups get a many appropriate seats. The unfamiliar figure-skating stars have been additionally attending. The prominence is a stunning nautical revolutionary ballet featuring a internal siren in red swimsuit.

Thats it; afterwards revolutionary formalism dissolves, as we! ll as a locals have been off to dinner with relatives, mostly regulating a metro (two lines), or a aging, mobile functions of revolutionary realism which have been a internal buses as well as trams. Some folk might eventually go bowling in a state-of-the-art Pyongyang Golden Lane Bowling Alley (45 lanes in fact; a minute diagram upon a wall shows a itinerary followed by Kim Il-sung upon a coronation day, as well as even all a spots where he stood). One actuality yet stands out; all by these happy proceedings, a Dear Leader Kim Jong-il himself was nowhere to be seen.

To be or not to be
Kim Jong-il was innate upon Feb 16, 1942, in an anti-Japanese riotous camp nearby Khabarovsk, usually opposite a border from Manchukuo in assigned China. By this time, both his relatives had been fighting a Japanese occupation for no reduction than 10 years.

All trap doors in sly North Korea seem eventually to lead to what is in actuality a stately Kim family whose Shakespearean saga, if ever brought to a TV mini-series (maybe a Chinese or Hong Kong investor?) would undoubtedly entice a global audience.

The Dear Leaders father Kim Il-sung, over 6 feet high [1.82 meters] as well as sporting a extended front (a big thing among Korean mothers), was charisma personified. His mother, Kim Chong-suk, widely worshiped as a ultimate anti-Japanese heroine, was reduction than 5 feet tall, pear-shaped, always in riotous fatigues, with a round, wide, smiling face, friendly though not unequivocally well educated. Kim Jong-il looks some-more similar to mom. And to put it mildly, which has done him extremely uneasy all his life.

While he was still a boy, Kim Jong-il suffered dual terrible traumas; a accidental drowning of his younger brother in 1947, as well as a genocide of his mom in bieing born in 1949. Thats when sporting a state-issued polyester summer uniform as well as plastic boots he started starting to gender-segregated facile school.

Fast forward, as well as ! a plot t hickens. The concentration right away is upon Kim Jong-nam, Kim Jong-ils son as well as until not long ago heir not-so-apparent (for years hes been living in China upon as well as off). And additionally upon Li Nam-ok, Kim Jong-ils daughter, adopted by him to mentor as well as play with his beloved son. She is from an aristocratic landowning family from, well, a enemy, South Korea. And nonetheless she was innate as well as lived with a silver ladle in her mouth, inevitably there would come a day when she would rebel.

The good adore of Kim Jong-ils hold up is as well as has always been his mistress, a ravishing as well as additionally Southern nobleman Sung Hae-rim, a comprehensive tip North Korean film star. She happens to double as Li Nam-oks aunt. And it gets even juicier she is Kim Jong-nams mother. This equates to Kim Jong-nam, a probable destiny DPRK leader (but by right away bypassed by his youngest half-brother Kim Jong-un) is technically an deceptive son.

Kim Jong-nam, high as well as handsome similar to his grandfather Kim Il-sung, grew up much similar to Pu Yi a last czar of China; hyper-protected, hyper-pampered as well as in actuality isolated in a many isolated multitude upon a planet. At initial he was educated by residence tutors, as well as had a court in attendance to his each whim. Meanwhile Li Nam-ok was developing opposite roles; during initial she was his playmate, afterwards his teacher, compartment eventually she became his sister.

And here lies a consequential plot twist; these brother-and-sister royals lived substantially their total early hold up as strangers in their own land. Thats definitely, deeply imprinted in a essence of a probable destiny North Korean leader.

Later as teenagers, both Kim Jong-nam as well as Li Nam-ok were sent to expensive delegate schools in Geneva with a unavoidable corollary of merrymaking with a abounding as well as important in Paris. Thats when la dolce vita done! Li Nam- ok betray North Korea. Now she believes which even Kim Jong-il himself regards as nonsense a monolithic central account of post-1912 North Korea a year a father of a nation, Kim Il-sung, was born.

Arguably a many appropriate informed source accessible anywhere upon Kim Jong-il is Li Nam-ok herself, by her Breaking North Korean Silence: Kim Jong-ils Daughter, A Memoir, written by Imogen ONeill. Here a single learns which a Dear Leader is unequivocally smart as well as unequivocally sensitive a prudish as well as rsther than shy guy whod rsther than stay during home as well as work in his pyjamas, as indeed he does.

He is not a socializing arrange hed substantially rsther than drop passed than stick upon Facebook. That in itself would explain why he didnt make a public appearance upon 2.16. Like a grand maestro, Kim Jong-il assumingly orchestrates all manner of North Korean spectaculars though is bored to tears to uncover up. He additionally seems to have a sharp criticism about all solutions enclosed as well as is able of mimicking substantially anyone. And unequivocally critical he loves to laugh.

He assumingly quit smoking a few years ago as well as drinks basically during grave occasions. Surprisingly for many, he is said to be not during all fond of a non-stop hero worship. In a unequivocally Korean manner, hes a family man, whose company he prefers to anybody elses. He seems to keep Joseph Stalins timetable waking up in a center of a night, operative by a early morning as well as sleeping prior to noon. He used to similar to partying, when his twenty or so preferred guests indulged in beer, alien French cognac as well as ginseng whisky. But afterwards a systems chosen can do a same in comparison Pyongyang hotels.

As much as he might be vexed a DPRKs massive bureaucracy, he could not though be acutely wakeful of his own as well as a states security; he usually trusts his tighten relatives. The tip commanders in charge of Pyongyangs security hav! e been f our brothers who have been in-laws to Kim Jong-ils sister. In a nutshell, Kim Jong-il seems not to humour fools, nor sycophants, gladly; hed rsther than listen to honest straight-shooters, a singular commodity in his circle.

It comes as no surprise which Kim Jong-il could never be defence from a seductive soothing power of American as well as Western mass culture. Hes an inveterate fan of Western post-modernity. Thus a array of Sony LED televisions in each room of his many palatial abodes, which equates to which Kim Jong-il might tune in to each trashy offering upon Japanese, South Korean as well as American cable. He surfs a Internet each day as well as is unequivocally well informed in a variety of issues. Hes a gourmet with an measureless video as well as DVD library. especially from Hollywood. He loves exemplary song though additionally a Rolling Stones, a Beach Boys as well as Pink Floyd (theres a fabulous black as well as white print of Kim Jong-il in 1977 with insurgent hair as well as dark glasses. What would be his Western role model then? Joe Strummer of The Clash? Would he be listening to White Riot?)

And afterwards theres his fleet of over twenty cars, including American brands though many of all his right away iconic black armored Mercedes S-600 with tinted windows, sometimes glimpsed in Pyongyangs boulevards (but not upon this 2.16).

Whether or not hes a Dr Evil portrayed by Western corporate media, what is certain is which Kim Jong-il urgently has to arrange out plenty of turbulence rattling a DPRK.

The residence a Great Leader built
Close observation of Pyongyang reveals which a North Korean complement might be right away similar to an overlapping obstruction of Chinese boxes some some-more blow up than others, though all unequivocally circumscribed in trying to defeat a law of sobriety as well as keep their relative privileges. The law of sobriety in this case is an manage to buy thats been in chronic predicament for a p! ast dual decades.

Kim Jong-ils central military-first process equates to complicated weaponry benefits from 25% to 30% of North Koreas annual bill (well, a US shifts 19% of sovereign spending as well as 44% of tax revenues to a Pentagon; a Iraq as well as AfPak wars, both funded by borrowing from unfamiliar powers, have cost each American family $25,000, according to Canadian media). But a consequential complaint is which a armed forces right away has become some-more critical than a Workers Party, which in a revolutionary complement spells certified disaster for a toiling, constant masses. The celebration still regiments no reduction than over a third of a DPRKs adult population.

The massive bureaucracy has acquired a hold up of a own. The historically centralized, as well as bureaucratically planned, supply of products as well as services by a state sometimes breaks down to a halt during a internal level. Theres a tremendous generation gap/shock in between a old Korean War (1950-1953) revolutionaries as well as a baby boomers a North Korean version.

The usually Great Leader which North Korea ever had has been passed for roughly sixteen years as well as a central account can be seen as a incessant meditation/mourning of this loss. And theres a single confrontation after another with a United States.

Kim Jong-il contingency think which North Korea really is not Somalia; this is a much some-more developed as well as modern economy. But what is it, exactly?

The residence a Great Leader Kim Il-sung built from scratch could possibly be described as an ultra-nationalist, family values, Confucian corporate state. It is Confucian in a profound respect for a family as well as a respect for a presumably enlightened, schooled elite. Chu Hsi, a owner of neo-Confucianism during a Song Dynasty (960-1279) would arguably feel during home in a DPRK.

As for nationalism, it manifested himself, for instance, by a preference of a pure inland language, formed upon an alphab! et inven ted by King Sejong in a early 15th century, as well as to illustrate not infested by either English or Japanese.

But a many distinguished aspect of North Koreas central account is which no reduction than 5 millennia of unequivocally abounding story have been condensed as well as all is telescoped to Apr 15, 1912, a bieing born date of Kim Il-sung (the day of a Sun) as well as a belligerent zero of a juche (pronounced chuche) idea.

Juche was Kim Il-sungs inland remix of Marxism/Leninism/Stalinism inflected with complicated boosts of Confucianism as well as metaphysics. On face value, juche equates to self-reliance as well as independence, not usually in ideology as well as governing body though additionally in all counts economic. Juche was in action already in 1955, when a DPRK declared a independence from a USSR, as well as again in a mid-1960s, when it reaffirmed a independence from both a USSR as well as China. It was to a good extent by formalizing juche which Kim Il-sung was worshiped all over a developing world as a single of a good 1950s icons of decolonization.

Bruce Cumings, arguably a many appropriate American scholar upon North Korea, gets straight to a point: The term is unequivocally untranslatable; a closer a single gets to a meaning, a some-more a definition slips away. For a foreigner a definition is ever-receding, into a pool of all which creates Koreans Korean, as well as thus in conclusion inaccessible to a non-Korean. Juche is a ambiguous core of North Korean inhabitant solipsism.

In his own book On a Juche Idea (1982), a long-lived best-seller during a Foreign Languages Publishing House in Pyongyang, Kim Jong-il seems to break away from a DPRKs irremediable solipsism to trace a surefire path for economic development. He writes which complicated attention with a machine-building attention as a fortitude is a post of an independent inhabitant economy. This in turn will accelerate a development of light attention as well as agriculture, as! well as it contingency be joined with solving a complaint of food upon ones own by successful farming.

In sum: If a single is to be economically excessively self-confident as well as develop a manage to buy upon a protected basis as well as with a long-term perspective, a single contingency depend upon ones own raw materials as well as fuel sources.

Is it working? Not exactly. Kim Jong-il has roughly a little over dual years to turn things around amid insistent rumors about his health as well as his succession and, in central terminology, open a embankment to a abounding nation in 2012, when there will be a massive inhabitant celebration to applaud a centenary of a bieing born of Great Leader Kim Il-sung.

So no consternation in a end he had improved things to do than uncover up for his own birthday party. But a few nagging questions remain. Considering his background as well as his tastes, does he ever feel similar to escaping from his own fortress? Does this certified recluse bay a rebellious thought of starting to a mall somewhere in a West as well as watching a disaster film in a cineplex, usually similar to anybody else? Or in conclusion would this film clean writer of a quite decent On a Art of a Cinema (1973) rsther than be a star in an pick plot?

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.