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Kim Jong Un

Being a dictator is a stressful slot. The Roman Mr Bigs most feared Palace coups so they recruited only Germans as palace guards feeling some security that way. Of course it didn't always work. (Caligula, I think) I don't know if Kim has the mental fortitude needed to reveal his cutting edge to the Palace guards. Here goes a possible interview for a guard: do you know Korean History? (right answer: not a thing); are you religious? Answer: what is religion?
 
Fellow Traveler said:
Being a dictator is a stressful slot. The Roman Mr Bigs most feared Palace coups so they recruited only Germans as palace guards feeling some security that way. Of course it didn't always work. (Caligula, I think)
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You mean the Imperial German Bodyguard? And "German" is a misnomer, it should be "Germanic". The most famous members were Batavians, who lived in nowadays Netherlands.
 
ddt said:
You mean the Imperial German Bodyguard? And "German" is a misnomer, it should be "Germanic". The most famous members were Batavians, who lived in nowadays Netherlands.[/QU
Very interesting. I think my info came from listening to I, Claudius or something like it while commuting.
Seems to fit the paranoid world of the dictator to fear his countrymen more than foreigners. If Kim Follows his father's and Grandfather's example, when he fears his hold on the country ebbing, he will grab some American asset and hold it to look tough.
A major problem for them is succession and if the heir is some tubby spoiled brat he will probably take over. Roman Emperors would marry their sister to cut down on rival claims but I assume Kim had no siblings to worry about.
Everyone is a victim in a way.
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Fellow Traveler said:
ddt said:
You mean the Imperial German Bodyguard? And "German" is a misnomer, it should be "Germanic". The most famous members were Batavians, who lived in nowadays Netherlands.
Click to expand...
Very interesting. I think my info came from listening to I, Claudius or something like it while commuting.
Seems to fit the paranoid world of the dictator to fear his countrymen more than foreigners. If Kim Follows his father's and Grandfather's example, when he fears his hold on the country ebbing, he will grab some American asset and hold it to look tough.
A major problem for them is succession and if the heir is some tubby spoiled brat he will probably take over. Roman Emperors would marry their sister to cut down on rival claims but I assume Kim had no siblings to worry about.
Everyone is a victim in a way.
Click to expand...

Kim Jong Un does indeed have siblings and at least one of them was the presumed heir before he was caught trying to sneak into Japan on a fake Dominican Republic passport in order to go to Tokyo Disneyland.

When Kim Jong-il was recovering from his stroke he began to be seen more and more with Kim Jong-un and the significance became obvious. He was later praised for being some kind of military leader (for having ordered firing of artillery shells into South Korea), and ultimately the way that North Korean leaders have legitimacy is that they are "defending the Korean people from the hostile outside world", particularly from the Yankee Imperialist Aggressors, the Right-Wing Reactionary Imperialist Japanese and the Puppet Government Stooges of the south.
 
Fellow Traveler said:
ddt said:
You mean the Imperial German Bodyguard? And "German" is a misnomer, it should be "Germanic". The most famous members were Batavians, who lived in nowadays Netherlands.
Click to expand...
Very interesting. I think my info came from listening to I, Claudius or something like it while commuting.
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It's not your fault, the wiki lemma is also wrongly titled.
Fellow Traveler said:
Seems to fit the paranoid world of the dictator to fear his countrymen more than foreigners.
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That seems quite rational to me, actually. A foreigner only has allegiance to his employer. A local man may have allegiance to family, friends, etc.

Fellow Traveler said:
Roman Emperors would marry their sister to cut down on rival claims
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The cutting down on rival claims was done by their female family members, notably Livia, with the aid of poison. That's at least how much of the early Julio-Claudian dynasty went. The later emperors typically adopted as sone someone they thought suitable as successor.

Craig B said:
Not a normal or approved practice. The Romans had a thing about incest. Suetonius states that Caligula had physical relations with his sisters, but other chroniclers, Seneca, Philo and Tacitus, though hostile to him, make no mention of such activity. See http://www.history.com/news/history-lists/7-things-you-may-not-know-about-caligula
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Graves mentions it, or at least the TV series. I remember from when it first aired a horrific scene where Caligula "delivered" the baby from his sister's womb with a sword.
 
ddt said:
The later emperors typically adopted as sone someone they thought suitable as successor.
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Good idea. When biological sons succeeded, the result was not always propitious. Vespasian and Domitian; Marcus Aurelius and Commodus.
 
Headline: Kim Jung Un Ill!!

worried comrades, " Wait a sec...is he sick or did he add another name to his name? Somebody find out quick before they set up the mortars...................":jaw-dropp:jaw-dropp:jaw-dropp
 
I remember watching a documentary about the North Korean soccer team's first time in the World Cup. In the video, they interview some of the members of the team, who reminisce fondly about when their Great Leader came to visit them. One of them wipes away his tears as he remembers the wise advice that Great Leader gave to them: "Run fast and kick hard"

It is fortunate they had such a brilliant strategic mind to guide them, as before that point, they had been following the "stroll around the field casually while gently nudging the ball" school of soccer strategy.
 
ddt said:
You mean the Imperial German Bodyguard? And "German" is a misnomer, it should be "Germanic". The most famous members were Batavians, who lived in nowadays Netherlands.
Click to expand...

The Byzantine Emperors also adapted that custom;most famously the Varangian guards;recruted almost 100% from The Vikings.

And more recently, John Gotti was so mistrustful of other in his "Family" that he employed "Westies" (Irish hoods) as his personal bodyguard.
 
Craig4 said:
He found out that the National Security Council staffers call him "Lunch Box". Ever since then he's been locked in his bedroom eating popcorn and M&Ms, drinking Sutter Home wine out of the bottle and watching old episodes of "The Golden Girls".
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********. He's been binging on Gilmore Girls on Netflix.
 
The life of Mr Big
Sleep until noon then eat bonbons and moon pies. Oh by the way, you must infiltrate into Chattanooga and get a big supply of moon pies!!
 
As Kim Jong-un inspects his new palace, South Korean intelligence has announced he probably had surgery on a cyst on his ankle:

South Korea’s spy agency claims it has solved the mystery of the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s six-week public absence.

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) told legislators that a foreign doctor operated on Kim in September or October to remove a cyst from his right ankle, according to Park Byeong-seok, an aide for the opposition lawmaker Shin Kyung-min.

The aide said the agency also told legislators in a closed-door briefing that the cyst could recur because of Kim’s obesity, smoking and heavy public schedule.
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However, South Korea's intelligence service is not the most trustworthy of bodies:

In the latest blow to the image of South Korea’s National Intelligence Service, a court on Tuesday convicted two of its counterintelligence officials of fabricating Chinese government documents to build a spy case against a refugee from North Korea.

A 48-year-old agent, who was identified only by his family name, Kim, was sentenced to two and a half years in prison. A 54-year-old former head of the spy agency’s counterintelligence investigations was sentenced to one and a half years.

They were accused of faking a set of immigration documents, ostensibly issued by the Chinese government, to build a spy case against Yu Woo-sung, an ethnic Chinese from North Korea who defected to South Korea in 2004.
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