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Kim Jong Un Looking at Things

AvalonXQ said:
I've only seen an episode or two of that show -- but food shortage is not a problem in the US, so I don't see the hypocrisy that I do with NK's leader.
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food shortage on a national scale might not be, but food insecurity can be. In 2008, 14.6 percent of U.S. households fell into the food-insecure category at some point during the year.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2010/08/10/food-insecurity-rising-in-america.html

obviously nowhere near as bad as what is happening in North Korea, but still a problem.

To be honest, I don't see a problem with a picture of Kim Jong Un being shown around an army base where food was being prepared. Judge him for what he actually does wrong, not what all heads of state everywhere do.
 
AdMan said:
Does anyone with an understanding of Korean culture care to try to explain all the hand and arm holding in some of the pictures (say number 21 or 29, for example)?

What's going on? Is it meant to convey that the young leader is close to and beloved by those who serve him?

It seems a little weird, especially because that's something we never (as I recall) saw his father do.
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Well, I can't comment directly on North Korea...but when I first came to China in 1993, I such much of the same behavior here. It was particularly common for men to hold hands with each other, and for family members to hold hands with each other. In the pictures here, I believe #15 is his Aunt and Uncle; #21 I'd interpret as being escorted by two soldiers, one male protectively escorting him by the arm, and one female holding hands with him (which he likely initiated, and probably screwed her later...his Daddy was well known for that). In #29, I don't know who it is, but would guess it is someone very close to him (family member, trusted advisor, etc.).

The only hand holding here that I'd find suspicious within this context is the female...in North Korea in particular, such contact between men and women in public would be strongly frowned on, even for married couples. The fact that it's going on here seems an assertion on his part that she belongs to him.
 
Foster Zygote said:
Interesting. They have at least one MiG 29.
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They have forty of those, which do fly. But their only realistic enemy to consider, South Korea, has that outnumbered by F-4s alone... and by F-5s alone... and by F-16s alone... and by F-15s alone. (They're also planning to replace the F-5s with something more modern soon.)

And the rest of North Korea's fighter/attack plane force is a mix of that, their best type, with a bunch more of older types going back to barely even post-WWII introduction dates, like MiG-15 (counterpart to a North American P-86/F-86 "Sabre"). It looks like they just occasionally grab whatever quantity they can of whatever's available. Not only does that put their planes' "average" ability somewhere around where the Soviet Union's was in the 1970s, but the variety of different types creates a mess for logistics and training, and would create another mess for tactics and strategy if they were at war.

North Korea's army is about twice the size of South Korea's, though, making a potential war largely a matter of one's air force versus the other's army, as long as South Korea is willing to use that advantage by dropping anti-personnel weapons from above.

bynmdsue said:
It's just not the same.
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The web page is not put together by the same people or in the same style.
 
Steven Spielberg should produce his life's story. Most of his earlier films consisted of several long scenes of people looking at things.
 
AdMan said:
Does anyone with an understanding of Korean culture care to try to explain all the hand and arm holding in some of the pictures (say number 21 or 29, for example)?

What's going on? Is it meant to convey that the young leader is close to and beloved by those who serve him?

It seems a little weird, especially because that's something we never (as I recall) saw his father do.
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Maybe he's drunk?
 
Had a good laugh at this yesterday. It almost seems he is better at looking at things than his late father!


But explain me two things.

What's up with the hand/arm holding?

What's up with the notebooks.


Those photos are just... odd.
 
BenBurch said:
Just a meta-discussion here; Could the poor sod be anything other than what he is and still be alive?

He is effectively royalty, and did not choose his parents, after all.

Would he survive until the next dawn if he started to undo the decades of repression?
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Probably not. But he could choose to stay in Switzerland and repudiate his father.
 
Maybe there is no symbolism and B. R. Myers just makes these things up.

Like his claim about the metaphysical significance of the leader riding a white horse.
 
No, based on other images of the North Korean leaders Myers has claimed that there are metaphysical reasons that the leader is consistently depicted riding a white horse. But the DPRK didn't get the memo, apparently.
 
AvalonXQ said:
People starving in other parts of the world is a big problem -- but it's not a problem of US overconsumption.
That is, despite the massive amounts of food Americans consume, there are additional amounts of food going to waste here. The problem isn't the food supply but getting the food to people who need it. And particularly in places like North Korea, the problem is a government that starves its people as part of controlling them.
So the American who chooses to eat more has zero impact on whether or not a starving person in Africa gets fed.
An African (or Korean) leader who feasts while his people starve under his policies, though -- that's disgusting.
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The pictures I'm seeing are of him viewing the food at army bases. This is, one would presume, food that is going to be fed to soldiers. I don't see a problem with him inspecting this, at least no more than any time a politician is photographed "inspecting" things they have no real business inspecting. I do have a problem with the idea that people are starving to death in some countries while in another, it's considered good entertainment to watch a man eat a four pound taco with another pound of side dishes, or take part in a hot dog eating contest. THAT disgusts me.
 
The expressions of the general and other guy in picture 7 are "why am I doomed to stand next to this idiot?".
 
Sledge said:
The pictures I'm seeing are of him viewing the food at army bases. This is, one would presume, food that is going to be fed to soldiers. I don't see a problem with him inspecting this, at least no more than any time a politician is photographed "inspecting" things they have no real business inspecting. I do have a problem with the idea that people are starving to death in some countries while in another, it's considered good entertainment to watch a man eat a four pound taco with another pound of side dishes, or take part in a hot dog eating contest. THAT disgusts me.
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Your disgust is irrational. Man vs. Food and hotdog eating contests have zero impact on starving children in other countries.
 
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