Kim Jong-un is "not feeling well"

[Velar Fricative]

I feel like it has to be bad if North Korean TV is actually announcing this.


www.nytimes.com/2014/09/27/world/asia/kim-jong-un-north-korea-not-feeling-well.html?


SEOUL, South Korea — Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, is “not feeling well,” a state-run television station reported this week, in a rare revelation about his health.



In a documentary broadcast on Thursday, the North’s Central TV showed Mr. Kim, who has not been seen in public in recent weeks, walking with a limp while visiting a factory in Nampo, a provincial town southwest of Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, last month. A narrator intoned about the tireless work of Mr. Kim, “our marshal, who lights the path of leadership for the people like a flame, although he was not feeling well.”



Central TV, a key channel of government propaganda, mentioned Mr. Kim’s physical trouble in the context of what it called his selfless dedication to his people. Still, it was so rare for the news media in North Korea to discuss the condition of the supreme leader that Thursday's report was widely picked up by the South Korean news media on Friday.



North Korea’s tightly controlled media never mentioned the health conditions of Mr. Kim’s grandfather and father, who ruled before him and suffered various ailments, like diabetes. Video footage and photographs never revealed a large cyst that Mr. Kim’s paternal grandfather, Kim Il-sung, developed on the back of his head in his later years.



Mr. Kim, who is widely believed to be about 30 although his government has never revealed his age, assumed the top leadership position after his father, Kim Jong-il, died of heart failure in 2011. Mr. Kim has since demonstrated a youthful leadership style by visiting farms, factories and military units more often than his father did. He appears to be bolder than his forebears in acknowledging problems. In a departure from the habitually sanitized description of state affairs, his country’s news media once quoted him as criticizing the poor upkeep of a public park and showed him pulling up weeds there.



But his health became a topic of speculation among outside analysts in July, after he was seen limping with his right leg in North Korean television footage. He was again shown walking with a limp this month, this time with his left leg. The images prompted South Korean analysts to speculate that he was suffering from gout or arthritis, in addition to his obesity.



Mr. Kim was already chubby when he took over after his father’s death. But according to video footage and photographs in the North Korean media, he appears to have gained weight since then.



The documentary was shown ahead of a prerecorded broadcast of a session of the legislative Supreme People’s Assembly, which had met earlier on Thursday. Mr. Kim did not attend the meeting, where some of his top aides were appointed to seats on his powerful National Defense Commission. It was the first time that Mr. Kim, a member of the assembly, had missed a parliamentary meeting since taking power.



The broadcast of the documentary — with its propagandistic spin on Mr. Kim’s health — may have been timed to counter growing speculation at home and abroad about his health, according to the South Korean news media.



North Korean TV and newspapers have not reported his public activities since Sept. 3, when Mr. Kim was said to have watched a musical performance.



It is not unusual for senior North Korean leaders to disappear from public view for weeks at a stretch. Still, the inner workings of the top leadership in Pyongyang have been cloaked in such secrecy that the outside world was in the dark about the death of Mr. Kim’s father in 2011 until the North Korean media announced it two days later.



A prolonged absence of a top North Korean official from public view often catches the attention of outside analysts, who look for signs of a political purge and other trouble within the isolated leadership.



Park Soo-jin, a spokeswoman for South Korea’s Ministry of National Unification, said on Friday that the government could not comment on the North Korean leader’s health but was closely following reports about it.

[IIOY]

I am sure whatever ails him is actually the fault of the United States and will be reason enough to test another nuke.

[ESF]

He is probably already dead. Now they are just laying the groundwork for the announcement.

[ijack]

I was reading an article about the speculation this morning, but the media wasn't saying anything yet. Interesting.

[cattledogkisses]

So who's in line to take power if he kicks the bucket?

[IIOY]

Sept 26, 2014 13:30:18 GMT -5 cattledogkisses said:

So who's in line to take power if he kicks the bucket?

They will sort that out after his wife is executed for failing to give birth to a full-grown leader-in-waiting.

[Velar Fricative]

Sept 26, 2014 13:32:41 GMT -5 IIOY said:

Sept 26, 2014 13:30:18 GMT -5 cattledogkisses said:

So who's in line to take power if he kicks the bucket?

They will sort that out after his wife is executed for failing to give birth to a full-grown leader-in-waiting.

I guess it was never much of a question before but since we know Kim has one daughter (thanks, Dennis Rodman!), I wonder if North Korea would groom her to be the next leader if she ends up being Kim's only child? Or I guess one of Kim's brothers (I think there are at least two?) would be the new leader.

[josieposy]

I nominate Yzma!

He ain't getting any deader...back to work!

[iammalcolmx]

You know who else doesn't feel well? All his people who are FUCKING STARVING. Bye Felicia!!

[eponinepontmercy]

Sept 26, 2014 13:53:15 GMT -5 iammalcolmx said:

You know who else doesn't feel well? All his people who are FUCKING STARVING. Bye Felicia!!

This is where I am. I know we aren't supposed to fat-shame, but he has a lot of nerve being obese when his people are boiling dry grass to survive.

[Velar Fricative]

Sept 26, 2014 13:53:15 GMT -5 iammalcolmx said:

You know who else doesn't feel well? All his people who are FUCKING STARVING. Bye Felicia!!

Starving people are not funny but I can't help it because this reply is still funny with the Bye Felicia.

[msmerymac]

Sept 26, 2014 13:40:53 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

Sept 26, 2014 13:32:41 GMT -5 IIOY said:

They will sort that out after his wife is executed for failing to give birth to a full-grown leader-in-waiting.

I guess it was never much of a question before but since we know Kim has one daughter (thanks, Dennis Rodman!), I wonder if North Korea would groom her to be the next leader if she ends up being Kim's only child? Or I guess one of Kim's brothers (I think there are at least two?) would be the new leader.

We're his brothers passed over by Kim Jong-Il for various reasons, though?

(I can't remember why, but I feel like one of the reasons for one of the sons might be because he's gay. That was the vibe I got from the reasoning.)

[Velar Fricative]

Sept 26, 2014 14:05:11 GMT -5 msmerymac said:

Sept 26, 2014 13:40:53 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

I guess it was never much of a question before but since we know Kim has one daughter (thanks, Dennis Rodman!), I wonder if North Korea would groom her to be the next leader if she ends up being Kim's only child? Or I guess one of Kim's brothers (I think there are at least two?) would be the new leader.

We're his brothers passed over by Kim Jong-Il for various reasons, though?

(I can't remember why, but I feel like one of the reasons for one of the sons might be because he's gay. That was the vibe I got from the reasoning.)

I thought I remembered one of the sons was considered a dumbass. 

[meshaliuknits]

Can Dennis Rodman be the new leader? I think that might be win win. He wouldn't be here and the regime would topple easily.

[Cicero]

Sept 26, 2014 14:06:24 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

Sept 26, 2014 14:05:11 GMT -5 msmerymac said:

We're his brothers passed over by Kim Jong-Il for various reasons, though?

(I can't remember why, but I feel like one of the reasons for one of the sons might be because he's gay. That was the vibe I got from the reasoning.)

I thought I remembered one of the sons was considered a dumbass. 

Is this the one who snuck off to Tokyo so he could go to Disney World? 

[Velar Fricative]

Sept 26, 2014 14:12:36 GMT -5 Cicero said:

Sept 26, 2014 14:06:24 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

I thought I remembered one of the sons was considered a dumbass. 

Is this the one who snuck off to Tokyo so he could go to Disney World? 

I hadn't heard that particular (amazing) story but yes, probably!

[summer]

Sept 26, 2014 13:53:15 GMT -5 iammalcolmx said:

You know who else doesn't feel well? All his people who are FUCKING STARVING. Bye Felicia!!

What I would give for someone to say that to him IRL!

[Deleted]

Has he tried kidnapping a South Korean actress? Isn't that what his father used to do when he felt a little under the weather?

[Cicero]

Sept 26, 2014 14:18:08 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

Sept 26, 2014 14:12:36 GMT -5 Cicero said:

Is this the one who snuck off to Tokyo so he could go to Disney World? 

I hadn't heard that particular (amazing) story but yes, probably!

theweek.com/article/index/242471/kim-jong-uns-less-responsible-disney-obsessed-older-brother

[gpw]

does he have a cough due to cold?

[origami]

Sept 26, 2014 18:05:38 GMT -5 Cicero said:

Sept 26, 2014 14:18:08 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

I hadn't heard that particular (amazing) story but yes, probably!

theweek.com/article/index/242471/kim-jong-uns-less-responsible-disney-obsessed-older-brother

how have all the NK books I've read failed to include this awesomeness? He sounds like he'd be a great successor. Seriously! Open that border and fill it with disneys and casinos, Kim Jong Nam. I bet he's a Star Wars fan too - naming his son Kim Han Sol.

[Velar Fricative]

Sept 26, 2014 18:05:38 GMT -5 Cicero said:

Sept 26, 2014 14:18:08 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

I hadn't heard that particular (amazing) story but yes, probably!

theweek.com/article/index/242471/kim-jong-uns-less-responsible-disney-obsessed-older-brother

So essentially Kim Jong-un got to be the leader because one brother is too gay and the other one is too stupid. What an accomplishment! I'm sure he thinks he's so bootstrappy.

[IIOY]

Sept 26, 2014 18:56:56 GMT -5 origami said:

Sept 26, 2014 18:05:38 GMT -5 Cicero said:

theweek.com/article/index/242471/kim-jong-uns-less-responsible-disney-obsessed-older-brother

how have all the NK books I've read failed to include this awesomeness? He sounds like he'd be a great successor. Seriously! Open that border and fill it with disneys and casinos, Kim Jong Nam. I bet he's a Star Wars fan too - naming his son Kim Han Sol.

I haven't read much about this guy at all, and certainly not in the books about NK. Frankly, he sounds like the one who should be in charge.

[StrawberryBlondie]

Sept 26, 2014 18:56:56 GMT -5 origami said:

Sept 26, 2014 18:05:38 GMT -5 Cicero said:

theweek.com/article/index/242471/kim-jong-uns-less-responsible-disney-obsessed-older-brother

how have all the NK books I've read failed to include this awesomeness? He sounds like he'd be a great successor. Seriously! Open that border and fill it with disneys and casinos, Kim Jong Nam. I bet he's a Star Wars fan too - naming his son Kim Han Sol.

This guy is officially my new favorite person.

[secretlyevil]

Hey if we have a vote, I'm voting for the older brother too.