Sacrava's Political Cartoon: The 2011's Death Club

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

Than Shwe Wants To Be Remembered As Kim Jong IL And Not Pol Pot

December 30, 2011
Written by: Kanbawza Win
OpEd

Pol Pot, Kim Jong IL and Than Shwe: The common denominator of these three men is cruelty, brutality, ruthlessness, and secrecy in a tyranny which simultaneously oppressed and starved its people to an almost unique degree to sustain their regimes. All of them have directly or indirectly killed from 1.5 to 2 million of their own citizens.

Pol Pot (actual name of birth is Saloth Sa) won a scholarship in 1949 to study radio electronics in Paris and became enthralled by writings on Marxism and revolutionary socialism and forged bonds with other likeminded young Cambodians studying in the metropolis, including Ieng Sary, Khieu Samphan, Khieu Ponnary, Khieu Thirith and Song Sen who were destined to become the notorious Khmer Rouge leaders. Returning from a secret trip to North Vietnam in 1967, Pol Pot took refuge in the northeast of Cambodia where he lived with a hill tribe and was so impressed by their simple, non-material way of life, that he imagined its to be a realisation of communist ideals.

Beginning on the day in 1975 when his guerrilla army marched silently into the capital, Pol Pot declared ‘Year Zero’ and directed a ruthless program to “purify” Cambodian society and no opposition was tolerated. Buddhist monks were defrocked and forced into labour brigades. In Phnom Penh, Pol Pot emptied the cities, pulled families apart, abolished religion and closed schools. Everyone was ordered to work, even children. The Khmer Rouge outlawed money and closed all markets. Doctors were killed, as were most people with skills and education that threatened the regime. The Khmer Rouge like the Burmese Tatmadaw (army) persecuted members of minority ethnic groups — the Chinese, Muslim Chams, Vietnamese and Thais who had lived for generations in the country, and any other foreigners — in an attempt to create a ”pure” Cambodia. Non-Cambodians were forbidden to speak their native languages or to exhibit any ”foreign” traits. The pogrom against the Cham minority was the most devastating, killing more than half of that community. The Cambodian genocide of 1975-1979, in which approximately 1.7 million people lost their lives (21% of the country’s population), was one of the worst human tragedies of the last century. As in the Ottoman Empire during the Armenian genocide, in Nazi Germany, and more recently in East Timor, Guatemala, Yugoslavia, and Rwanda, the Khmer Rouge regime headed by Pol Pot combined extremist ideology with ethnic animosity and a diabolical disregard for human life to produce repression, misery, and murder on a massive scale. Irrefutable evidence of “crimes against humanity, genocide, grave breaches of the Geneva Convention, homicide, torture and religious persecution.” were found by the UN. But the people of Cambodia were liberated when on 15th April 1998 in a small thatched hut in the mountains of northern Cambodia Pol Pot died at the age of 73 when the government troops were closing down on him and left the nation in trauma up to this day.

A preview of Hun Manet's future after the Strongman's death?

Thousands of North Koreans participated in a memorial service for Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang on Thursday. (Korean Central News Agency, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images)

At Huge Rally, North Koreans Declare Kim Their Leader

December 29, 2011
By CHOE SANG-HUN
The New York Times

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea publicly declared the young heir Kim Jong-un its supreme leader at a huge rally on Thursday in Pyongyang that culminated with his ascent to the top of the hermetic Communist nation after nearly two weeks of national mourning for his father, Kim Jong-il.

A crowd of tens of thousands, most of them uniformed soldiers, packed the plaza — named after Mr. Kim’s grandfather, the North’s founding president, Kim Il-sung — and those gathered swore their allegiance to the dynastic transfer of power. The event, a memorial service for Kim Jong-il, who died on Dec. 17, capped 13 days of mourning and introduced the era of his son.

“Respected Comrade Kim Jong-un is now supreme leader of our party, military and people,” said Kim Yong-nam, the president of the North Korean Parliament, who is considered the ceremonial head of state. “He inherits the ideology, leadership, courage and audacity of Comrade Kim Jong-il.”

Are the North Koreans crying due grief or was it due to the painful biting cold?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ht6nWLEfdF8

North Korean Mourners Line Streets for Kim Jong-il’s Funeral

In an image made from KRT television, a hearse carried Kim Jong-il during a funeral procession in Pyongyang, North Korea on Wednesday. (KRT, via Associated Press)

The photo is displayed in case you can't tell who the deceased is:

A portrait of Kim Jong-Il was seen at his funeral procession in Pyongyang, North Korea, in this image made from KRT television on Wednesday. (KRT, via Associated Press)

December 28, 2011
By CHOE SANG-HUN
The New York Times

SEOUL, South Korea — Kim Jong-un, the designated successor to the socialist throne in Pyongyang, North Korea, bid farewell on Wednesday to his deceased father, Kim Jong-il, walking along his hearse through snow-covered downtown Pyongyang in an extensive funeral closely watched for early glimpses of who’s rising and who’s fading under the young untested leader.

Neat rows of soldiers stood bowing in front of the Kumsusan mausoleum, where Kim Jong-il’s body had been lying in state since his death was announced on Dec. 19.

When the funeral motorcade stopped before them, they gave a last salute, and then a military band played the national anthem. North Korea’s Central TV also showed crowds of people wildly crying along snowy streets, the route of the funeral procession.

Politiktoons No . 183: Kim Jong Il

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://politiktoons.blogspot.com and also at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

Dear Leader's son versus Strongman's son

Small Dick(-tator) pays last tribute to Dear Dick(-tator) - No puns intended!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxqI0fm-rJo

Dick-tator Hun Xen Pays Last Tribute to Dick-tator Kim Jong Il

Cambodian PM Pays Last Tribute to DPRK's Leader Kim Jong Il

2011-12-22
Xinhua

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and his deputies on Thursday paid their last respects to the late leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Jong Il at the DPRK Embassy in Phnom Penh.

At the Embassy, the premier was welcomed by the DPRK's Ambassador to Cambodia Hong Ki Chol.

Meanwhile, Hun Sen and his deputies laid wreaths and wrote in a condolence book expressing deepest sympathy to Kim's death.

From Cambodia, Condolences for a Dear Friend

This 1975 photo shows Norodom Sihanouk, Cambodia’s head of state in exile, meeting with then-North Korean President Kim Il Sung. Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

December 20, 2011
By Jacob M. Schlesinger
The Wall Street Journal

As Cambodia manages to transition from its communist past to a more capitalist future, the government here was one of the few to issue heartfelt condolences on the passing of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

Cambodian information minister Khieu Kanharith called the death “a great loss,” the Phnom Penh Post reported in its Tuesday editions. A separate government spokesman was quoted saying “the friendship and bilateral cooperation between North Korea and Cambodia will never die.”

As the report noted, the ties had less to do with ideology, or even the regional realpolitik, than with the eclectic past of Cambodia’s own longtime great leader, King Father Norodom Sihanouk.

Mr. Sihanouk met Kim Il Sung at the Bandung Conference, an anti-colonialist, non-aligned movement banquet in Jakarta hosted by then-Indonesia leader Sukarno in 1965. Mr. Sihanouk wrote musical scores in 1970 celebrating “friendship and fraternity” between the two countries, the Post reported. And Mr. Sihanouk stayed in a 60-room palace outside Pyongyang during his period of exile; even after his return to power, he regularly vacationed there.

Introducing Comrade Kim Jong Dead

The body of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il lies in state at the Kumsusan Memorial Palace in Pyongyang in this still picture taken from video footage of still images aired by KRT (Korean Central TV of the North) December 20, 2011. North Korea was in seclusion on Tuesday, a day after it announced the death of its leader Kim Jong-il, as concern mounted over what would happen next in the deeply secretive nation that is trying to build a nuclear arsenal. REUTERS/KRT via REUTERS TV

The body of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il lies in state at the Kumsusan Memorial Palace in Pyongyang in this still picture taken from video footage of still images aired by KRT (Korean Central TV of the North) Dec. 20, 2011.

KRT via REUTERS TV/Reuters

In Kim’s Death, an Extensive Intelligence Failure

December 19, 2011
By MARK LANDLER and CHOE SANG-HUN
The New York Times

WASHINGTON — Kim Jong-il, the enigmatic North Korean leader, died on a train at 8:30 a.m. Saturday in his country. Forty-eight hours later, officials in South Korea still did not know anything about it — to say nothing of Washington, where the State Department acknowledged “press reporting” of Mr. Kim’s death well after North Korean state media had already announced it.

For South Korean and American intelligence services to have failed to pick up any clues to this momentous development — panicked phone calls between government officials, say, or soldiers massing around Mr. Kim’s train — attests to the secretive nature of North Korea, a country not only at odds with most of the world but also sealed off from it in a way that defies spies or satellites.

Asian and American intelligence services have failed before to pick up significant developments in North Korea. Pyongyang built a sprawling plant to enrich uranium that went undetected for about a year and a half until North Korean officials showed it off in late 2010 to an American nuclear scientist. The North also helped build a complete nuclear reactor in Syria without tipping off Western intelligence.

Question from our readers: Kim Jong Il versus Hun Xen

NORTH KOREAN LEADER KIM JUNG IL Vs. KHMER LEADER HUN SEN

When Kim Jung Il, a North Korean leader, died, the people of North Korea cry for his death.

But in Cambodia, if this Viet dog dies, this is what happens:

Can you tell why?

Sacrava's Political Cartoon: The Dictators

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

Life under the Norh Korean Dictator: Pets are fed better than human beings

 

Excerpt from The Lifestyle of the Dear Leader
By Adam Clark Estes | The Atlantic Wire

In what's perhaps one of the more frustrating juxtapositions, Kim Jong-Il fed his dogs better than his people. This summer we pointed to the work of an undercover journalist who snuck into North Korea with a camera and recorded startling images of starving young children, digging through the trash to survive. In the dictator's compound, the situation was much different. From The Times, once again:

But inside the sealed world of Kim Jong Il, the Japanese chef recalled, the only time food shortages came up was when employees at a villa kennel were caught eating beef intended for Kim's pet dogs.

"Kim Jong Il ordered the kennel director to go to a labor camp for two years and the others for one year," he wrote in the new book. "Twenty kilograms of beef in the refrigerator every day must have been a great temptation to the workers who were never given beef."

Great King and Midget King may not attend Dear Leader's funeral

Top: Great King meeting Great Leader. Bottom: Great Leader and Dear Leader

19 Dec 2011
Everyday.com.kh
Translated from Khmer by Soy

King Sihamoni and his parents will send a condolence letter for Kim Jong Il, the North Korean leader who died on 17 December 2011. Prince Sisowath Tomeko, said today: “Currently, we are preparing a letter in behalf of the king and his father, and it will be sent out today. Tomeko said that the king and his father may not travel to Pyongyang for the funeral. He added that Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il’s father, died in 1994 and King-Father did not attend his funeral also. Sihanouk is a close friend of North Korea, he has a palace in Pyongyang and he lived there before returning to Cambodia after the signing of the 1991 Paris Peace Agreements.

Cambodia Prepares Condolences for Loss of North Korean Leader

Monday, 19 December 2011
Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer | Phnom Penh

The government will offer official condolences to the citizens of North Korea, “who lost what they considered their most important leader.”

Cambodia is preparing its condolences to the people of North Korea on Monday, after the passing of their leader, Kim Jong-il, who died of a heart attack on Saturday.

The government will offer official condolences to the citizens of North Korea, “who lost what they considered their most important leader,” said Phay Siphan, a government spokesman.

Cambodia maintains friendly relations with the reclusive nation, which were forged by the former king, Norodom Sihanouk, who is also expected to issue an informal message to Pyongyang, a palace official said.

Hun Xen's Nambodia is very sorry for the death of "Dear Dick-tator" Kim Jong Il

Cambodia expresses condolences for Kim's death

PHNOM PENH, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia expressed deep sympathy over the death of Kim Jong Il, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), Khieu Kanharith, the spokesman for the Government of Cambodia said on Monday.

"Cambodia is very sorry for the death of Kim Jong Il," said Kanharith, who is also the Minister of Information. "This is a great loss for the people of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea."

"We hope that the unification plan between the DPRK and the Republic of Korea will still continue peacefully for the interests of the Korean peninsula, regionanl and global peace," he told reporters at the Ministry.

The dictator is dead, long live the dictator - Le dictateur est mort, vive le dictateur

Kim Jong-un and Kim Jong-il, his father, on 25 Octover 2011
Kim Jong-un et son père, Kim Jong-il, le 25 octobre 2011. (Photo: KCNA KCNA/REUTERS)

PORTRAIT - Celui qui devrait prendre les rênes de la Corée du nord ne va sans doute pas diverger de la ligne tracée par son père...

PORTRAIT - The one who whould take the reins of North Korea does probably not differ from the line drawn by his father ...

Le dictateur est mort, vive le dictateur.

The dictator is dead, long live the dictator.

Il or Ok? Can you tell?