Juche Justice

Michael C. Moynihan | November 27, 2007

Another day, another story of unmitigated evil from Kim Jong-Il's Hermit Kingdom. According to a report in the Daily Mail, North Korea's Stalinist regime publicly executed an un-Juche factory worker for making counter-revolutionary international phone calls. On paper, the regime outlawed public executions in 2000, though as CNN's undercover cameras documented in this stunning documentary, stadium-filling executions, many of the for the use of cell phones smuggled in from China, continue apace. From the Mail:

A North Korean factory boss accused of making international phone calls was executed by a firing squad in front of 150,000 people, it emerged today. The manager was gunned down in a sports stadium in South Pyongan province after authorities claimed he'd installed (sic) 13 in a basement to reach the outside world, the Good Friends aid agency revealed.

And six people were also crushed to death and 34 others injured in an apparent stampede as they left after the execution, it was claimed.

For those interested in regular reports from North Korea's network of dissident journalists, check out the indispensable the DailyNK website. And yes, Wikipedia is correct: I was banned from North Korea due to my "insulting marketing" against leaders both Dear and Great.

I noted a previous North Korean public execution (again, for using a cell phone) a few months back, which includes a gruesome video clip from the CNN documentary mentioned above.

Comments

bleeding heart imperialist|11.27.07 @ 5:03PM|#

We need no further moral justification to invade now.

|11.27.07 @ 5:06PM|#

I hope the Dear Leader gets it like Ceaucescu.

Only much, much slower.

Episiarch|11.27.07 @ 5:08PM|#

Why doesn't some NORK Army officer just pop Kim in the fucking head already? Even Hitler had several assasination attempts. Though, of course, Stalin didn't. What a mess.

Peter|11.27.07 @ 5:11PM|#

Where's George Clooney et al. on this one? Why is it that Hollywood activists are strangely mute when it comes to the atrocities that have been occurring in North Korea for years.

|11.27.07 @ 5:13PM|#

Only much, much slower.

It's going to have to be something like being digested alive for 1,000 years for this fuck to give justice its due.

|11.27.07 @ 5:16PM|#

I hope the Dear Leader gets it like Ceaucescu.

Only much, much slower.

I toasted Ceausescu's execution. Repeatedly. In fact, I got snot-slinging drunk over it. I would love to repeat the experience with Kim Jong-Il's deserved departure from the land of the living. They probably won't let me visit either.

Reinmoose|11.27.07 @ 5:22PM|#

actually, I would prefer it if we could simply put him in a cage in a US Zoo or something (perhaps DC?), where people could throw things at him and he could poop outside in front of everyone.

Reinmoose|11.27.07 @ 5:23PM|#

But I guess, to be fair, that zoo should be in North Korea.

|11.27.07 @ 5:31PM|#

JW

I was thinking of an induced cancer.

With just enough chemotherapy to stretch it out for as long as possible.

And no painkillers.

However, given the Dear Leader's purported taste for Hollywood movies, your suggestion does seem appropriate.

|11.27.07 @ 5:35PM|#

actually, I would prefer it if we could simply put him in a cage in a US Zoo or something (perhaps DC?), where people could throw things at him and he could poop outside in front of everyone.

No, like Ishido got it at the end of Shogun (based on a true incident).

|11.27.07 @ 5:36PM|#

Where's George Clooney et al. on this one? Why is it that Hollywood activists are strangely mute when it comes to the atrocities that have been occurring in North Korea for years.

What makes you bring up George Clooney? He raises money for charity, but why single him out? "Hollywood Activists" are not an actual group with an agenda, after all.

Why not ask why the Salvation Army has been strangely mute when it comes to overfishing in the North Atlantic?

Sergeant Prudence|11.27.07 @ 5:58PM|#

Better not ask. You might find yourself in the company of cods. Understand?

|11.27.07 @ 6:05PM|#

And yes, Wikipedia is correct: I was banned from North Korea due to my "insulting marketing" against leaders both Dear and Great.

Fuck you guys for dismissing Michael C. Moynihan as a mere neo-con....until you get banned from North Korea you will not even approach him in shear coolness.

|11.27.07 @ 7:06PM|#

Les, you can't think of any reason why somebody might think Clooney is a communist or communist sympathizer? Do you deny a passing familiarity with "Good Night, and Good Luck"? Maybe that's because you are a communist, Les. Or should I say "comrade"? How many Clooney movies have you seen, anyway? Do you love your country?

|11.27.07 @ 7:09PM|#

Josh-

My Grandfather raised sheep on a farm in Ireland, so don't lecture me about "shear" coolness.

Being banned from PRK does indeed rock, though.

atrevete|11.27.07 @ 7:12PM|#

Well, I'm sure the CIA is behind it. When anything bad happens anywhere it's always the CIA plus the corporatists that make it happen.

atrevete|11.27.07 @ 7:14PM|#

Also, you know cell phones are bad for people, and probably even cause cancer - though Big Pharma doesn't want you to know about it.

Dear Leader is hip, though, and he's actually protecting his people!

|11.27.07 @ 7:29PM|#

Where can I see the video. It has been pulled by youtube.
Thank

Peter|11.27.07 @ 7:49PM|#

"Hollywood Activists" Les, I seem to notice make a big stink about our lack as a country of intervention or just lack of concern regarding DARFUR. It has become the latest cause de jour, in case you've glanced at the TV lately. I just found it to be slightly incongruous that such a groundswell arose over Darfur when none existed at all over North Korea. I think bigbigslackeranticommie has a point here.

|11.27.07 @ 7:59PM|#

FWIW, I also think Great Leader, Dear Leader is an indispensable book for anyone wanting to learn about North Korea.

dhex|11.28.07 @ 1:02AM|#

uh invading north korea is on a slightly different magnitude than darfur.

i mean c'mon guys.

c-c-c-c-c-c'mon.

kraorh|11.28.07 @ 1:07AM|#

"Where's George Clooney et al. on this one? Why is it that Hollywood activists are strangely mute when it comes to the atrocities that have been occurring in North Korea for years."

Well, I'll tell you. The thing about George Clooney, and other members of the Film Actors Guild, is that they all are pussies. And Kim Jong Il is an asshole. Pussies don't like dicks, because pussies get fucked by dicks. But dicks also fuck assholes: assholes that just want to shit on everything. Pussies may think they can deal with assholes their way. But the only thing that can fuck an asshole is a dick, with some balls. The problem with dicks is: they fuck too much or fuck when it isn't appropriate - and it takes a pussy to show them that. But sometimes, pussies can be so full of shit that they become assholes themselves... because pussies are an inch and half away from ass holes. I don't know much about this crazy, crazy world, but I do know this: If you don't let us fuck this asshole, we're going to have our dicks and pussies all covered in shit!

And George Clooney is a member of the Film, err, Screen Actors Guild. That's all you need to know, really.

Bee|11.28.07 @ 1:27AM|#

Disturbingly, I could follow kraohr's line of reasoning there.

|11.28.07 @ 1:48AM|#

"Hollywood Activists" Les, I seem to notice make a big stink about our lack as a country of intervention or just lack of concern regarding DARFUR.

There are terrible places all over the world. Shall we suspect everyone who makes the mistake of paying attention to some hellholes (which are accessible) while ignoring others (which aren't accessible)? Or shall we reflexively judge them for being politically incorrect in their attentions?

I think bigbigslackeranticommie has a point here.

I got the feeling he was joking and I'm beginning to think you're doing an impersonation of General Jack Ripper .

Geotpf|11.28.07 @ 2:39AM|#

Bee-If you don't know, that's a modified quote from Team America: World Police, the plot of which is directly related to the discussion at hand (namely, Hollywood activists and North Korea), created by Libertarians Trey Parker and Matt Stone.

ed|11.28.07 @ 8:16AM|#

So would waterboarding be too good for that little dink?

Abdul|11.28.07 @ 8:45AM|#

I, for one, support a leader who's willing to take a strong stand on people yapping too loudly into their cell phones. How can one enjoy the display of thousands of citizens doing synchronized interpretive dance on the glories of socialism when some jerk is yammering away about rice scarcities?

Bluetooth headset-users, you're on notice!

B|11.28.07 @ 11:02AM|#

The image of the DPRK that sticks with me more than any other is from a documentary I watched about some (western) doctors that went over there to perform eye surgeries. One woman, who had been blind for decades, has her bandages removed and is now seeing. She is overcome with emotion. The first thing she does is go to the nearest wall with a picture of KJI hanging on it, and thank him profusely for restoring her sight.

That nation will take generations to recover from this regime.

|11.28.07 @ 11:57AM|#

At least the Dear Leader provides free universal health care for the people.

|11.28.07 @ 12:05PM|#

B, I saw that documentary as well. I was also surprised to see her thank KJI, but then I was reminded how just to survive in PRK you need to at least pretend that you love KJI and show your loyalty- especially if you are being filmed by an international film crew and are being closely watched by the PRK military police (who, if I recall, where with the film crew the whole time). I'd proably do the same.

|11.28.07 @ 12:11PM|#

I hope the Dear Leader gets it like Ceaucescu.

Only much, much slower.

When it occurs to me, I take much pleasure from the thought that Fidel Castro is dying a slow, humiliating, and painful death.

Does that make me a bad person?

|11.28.07 @ 5:33PM|#

When it occurs to me, I take much pleasure from the thought that Fidel Castro is dying a slow, humiliating, and painful death.

Does that make me a bad person?

No, it probably makes you an compassionate person. Under that distasteful vengeful emotion is a moral anger at the horrors of daily life that Cubans have endured since 1959.

Or so I'm guessing.

Peter|11.28.07 @ 7:38PM|#

Oh, Les,

I just feel like it's a bit hypocritical. I mean, if we're going to discuss it, why not discuss it. If you're going to say leave them alone, let's just leave it all alone and stop commenting on blogs all together.

My point is, intervention in foreign affairs on a humanitarian basis when the crisis is a direct result of an internal regime or conflict foments warfare, small or large scale. It would undeniable result in our committing troops to the area as well.

"anticommie" might have been joking, but there may be some truth to what he was saying, because in the final analysis, the only thing separating one theatre of combat from the other is the amount of collateral damage that we would endure in the resulting skirmish. To suggest intervention that would almost certainly galvanize a whole new faction of Muslim hostility may not be as dangerous as engaging an Asiatic despot with nuclear weapons, but its folly is of the same ilk. I suspect, as I imagine anticommie does as well, that emoting about tyranny resonates better in Hollywood (I should know, I live there) if one directs it at a more pathetically auspicious target than at North Korea, where leftists might argue that the masses are at least offered the state's best intentions.

hke|11.28.07 @ 9:30PM|#

It's clear to me that North Korea needs a better long distance calling plan.

Robert|11.29.07 @ 1:32AM|#

The image of the DPRK that sticks with me more than any other is from a documentary I watched about some (western) doctors that went over there to perform eye surgeries. One woman, who had been blind for decades, has her bandages removed and is now seeing. She is overcome with emotion. The first thing she does is go to the nearest wall with a picture of KJI hanging on it, and thank him profusely for restoring her sight.

Wait a minute...how did she recognize him?

|11.29.07 @ 2:52PM|#

Robert, I guess there weren't that many other pictures of smiling guys hanging on the wall.

|11.29.07 @ 9:19PM|#

She'd never seen Charlie Chaplin and got confused.