Kim Jong-Il Dead

[Neon Ignition]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16239693

The radio has already started to use Team America song bites as North Korea's leader dies, for once not with US involvement. It seems a heart attack claimed him on a train ride on the 17th. His youngest son is tipped as his replacement.

Funnily enough:

http://kotaku.com/5869207/video-game-almost-predicted-kim-jong+ils-death

Homefront was only two weeks out from correctly guessing it!

[Sketcz]

Stealing this from someone I follow on Twitter:
I predict that some day, Fidel Castro will die. Remember this forum post, Kotaku

[QualityChimp]

I'm actually quite fascinated by Kim Jong-Il and some of the crazy things he's done.

Just to clarify, I'm not in awe of him, I find it astonishing what somebody in power thinks is an important way to spend his countries limited money. All of the below have happened whilst millions of North Koreans have starved to death.

• In the 1950s, built a village within viewing distance of South Korea called "Peace Village" (or "Propaganda Village" in the South) that is supposed to show them the comparatively luxurious living conditions of the North. In recent years, high-power telescopes have revealed that the town is a movie-style fake with no windows and only certain buildings have light and they're on a timer. Many buildings don't even have rooms.
• He got into a tallest flagpole competition with South Korea. After both sides increased the height of their flagpole several times, the North eventually won, but if it rains, they have to take the flag down because the extra weight of the wet flag would topple it. It's currently the third tallest in the world.
• Put up speakers near the border to praise the values of the North and encourage Southern farmers to cross the border where they would be welcomed as brothers. After this proved unsuccessful, they swapped to playing anti-Western speeches.
• He was a big film fan. So much so that he wrote his own book about movie-making and kidnapped a South Korean director and his actress wife to build the North Korean film industry. One of the films he was made to direct was a Godzilla clone called Pulgasari that Kim Jong-Il produced. It is supposed to be a metaphor for the damage of unchecked Capitalism. Watch it here.
• Trained a team of ultra-hard bodyguards that could take a bullet and keep fighting. Training videos including hitting each other in the face with shovels here.
• State propaganda elevated him to a demi-god, credited with superhuman powers of wisdom, leadership and military prowess. Many North Koreans believe that he has the "magical" ability to "control the weather" based on his mood.
• He was scared of flying, so travelled by armoured train. He had live lobsters helicoptered in every day and ate them with silver chopsticks.
• Has dozens of dogs and spends about $400 000 on dog food. He buys hundreds of bottles of French wine when he has parties.
• Organises the Arirang Mass Games where thousands of North Koreans put on a flawlessly choreographed show that dwarfs the Olympic opening and closing ceremonies.
• Built a trap-door in his palace so that when Hans Blix came looking for WMDs, he fell into a shark tank and was eaten alive.

I'm hoping some more crazy stories come out now that he's died of "physical and mental over-work".

I also hope them jumpsuits become fashionable, because they look well comfy...

[Flabio]

Bizarrely I think most world leaders were hoping he'd hang on a bit longer. There's genuine doubt about what is going to go down there next. His named successor (third son) is pretty young, and not hugely popular in the ruling party. There's real possibility of it all kicking off in all sorts of unpleasant ways.

[Guts]

Well, he won't be missed as a human being, but who knows what will happen in the country now? Hopefully the situation won't turn to anything nasty. Worst case scenario would be if some hardliners seize the power now.

[nakamura]

I love the idea of anti western speeches while sipping a bottle of french red wine!

[koopatroopa90]

That made me laugh too, I guess in WWIII France's wine producing region will be the place to go to avoid the bombs!

Quality Chimp - most of those are fantastic, he sounds like he was a caricature, some real life Bond villan!

[QualityChimp]

This is a night time shot of North and South Korea, depicting the light that is coming out of the two countries...

[Sketcz]

Indeed, that's bloody fascinating, Quality Chimp! (Pyongyang features in the book btw, though not massively, so you should enjoy that)

Though I'm sure the shark attack thing was just from that puppet film, right?

Also, no talk of North Korea can be complete with this UK:R google cache.

[BeyondJumpFish]

If i remember correctly North Korea switches the electricity off at night. They have regular powercuts all the time too.
I like the fact that they have their own Intranet, which tells history differently and only gives limited information about other countries.

[EDDIE M0NS00N]

[mr_rich]

was there any repercussions on the team america thing back when it was released?
im guessing it was banned in n.korea, but did matt and trey get any death threats etc?

[NW2013]

I would guess not since the general populace wouldn't have seen it.

[randombs]

This is a night time shot of North and South Korea, depicting the light that is coming out of the two countries...

Looks like North Korea is the place to go for a decent night's sleep!

[QualityChimp]

Some more amazing Kim Jong-Il facts!

• In 1994, it was reported by Pyongyang media outlets that Kim Jong Il shot 38 under par on a regulation 18-hole golf course – including 5 holes in one. That score is 25 shots better than the best round in history, and is made even more amazing by the fact that it was his first time playing the sport. It’s said Kim Jong Il would routinely sink 3 or 4 holes in one per round of golf, and – lucky for the PGA – he has since given it up.
• According to a book written by one of Kim Jong Il’s ex-staff members, he was once injured by falling off his horse when it slipped on loose rocks. He was afraid of becoming addicted to the painkillers that his doctors prescribed him, so he had members of his administrative staff injected daily with the same dosages he had to take. He did this so he wouldn’t be the only one hooked on the drug.
• In preparation for the World Festival of Youth and Students in 1989, Kim Jong Il had disabled residents removed from Pyongyang. The government also distributed pamphlets advertising a wonder drug that would increase the height of short people. Those who responded to the pamphlets were sent away to different uninhabited islands along with the disabled in an attempt to rid the next generation of their supposedly substandard genes. Left for dead, none of the people made it back home.
• For a few years in the early 1990s, it was confirmed by Hennessy that Kim Jong Il was it’s best customer, spending about $600,000 to $850,000 annually on the liquor. He is partial to the Paradis cognac, which can sell for over $700 per bottle. In comparison, the average North Korean makes about $1000 per year.
• In 2006, Kim Jong-Il contacted a German rabbit breeder that was breeding giant rabbits. He thought that giant rabbits will be the solution to his country's widespread hunger problems. So he spoke to 68-year-old Karl Szmolinsky of Berlin, the world's foremost breeder of giant rabbits, and asked Szmolinsky to come to Pyongyang and set up a farm to breed these rabbits. The breeder explained they only yield about 15 pounds of meat but have huge appetites, so they eat more than that in vegetables. If anything, breeding giant rabbits would make the North Korea hunger situation even worse.
  
  Undeterred, Kim pays for 12 rabbits, at a cost of about $115 each. He tells Szmolinsky that the rabbits will be kept at a petting zoo in Pyongyang and, in a few months, Szmolinsky will be flown in to help really set up a farm for breeding.
  
  In February of 2007, about five or six months later, Szmolinsky gets a call from a North Korean official canceling that trip, because, Szmolinsky believes, Kim couldn't resist... and ate the giant rabbits to celebrate his birthday.
• Kim has his boyhood school blown up. Even though Kim's father was Kim Il-Sung, the former dictator of North Korea, Kim still had to go to school. Kim was a "rather ordinary student" who ended up having to work hard to do well.
  
  Years later, Kim ordered the military to blow up the school where he had worked so hard, because that school was now teaching regular people, not just the children of wealthy communist officials, and Kim was afraid that it was giving students too much of a competitive advantage against his own children.
• Kim hires a staff to inspect his rice, to make sure each piece is the same size, because he apparently hates eating rice if every grain isn't uniform in length, plumpness and color. So he hires a staff of women to go through each and every grain of rice before it enters his palace's kitchen, making sure each piece meets Kim's standard.
• Kim injects himself with the blood of virgins to stay young.

Is it me or are these sounding more and more like Chuck Norris facts or something?!