Channel 4 News Asia Correspondent John Sparks blogs on the North Koreans’ response to the death of their ‘dear leader’, Kim Jong-il
It is a startling thing to see, but I can’t help wondering what they are really thinking.
We are watching pictures of North Koreans, crying hysterically on the streets of Pyongyang. The death of the country’s ‘dear leader’, Kim Jong-il, seems to have come as a terrible shock. Large groups of citizens shuffle towards various monuments to the Kim clan, where they bow and weep and then shuffle off again.
The news came this morning on state television. It was relayed by Ru Chun-hui, the trusty presenter of big or bad news in the ‘Democratic Republic’. It’s thought she announced the death of Kim Jong-il’s father, Kim Sung-il, in 1994 – and she relied on the same exaggerated and tearful tone this morning. Here is the text of what she said:
“Kim Jong-il, general secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea, chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission and supreme commander of the Korean People’s Army, passed away from a great mental and physical strain at 08:30 December 17, 2011, on train during a field guidance tour.
“The WPK Central Committee and Central Military Commission, DPRK National Defence Commission, Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly and Cabinet released a notice on Saturday informing the WPK members, servicepersons and all other people of his passing away.”
My team has yet to visit North Korea. We have tried and failed to obtain visas to the ‘hermit kingdom’ on a number of occasions, and that seems unlikely to change anytime soon. While the funeral has been set for 28 December, staff at the DPRK’s embassy in China have been quoted saying that ‘no foreign delegations’ will be invited.
If you can’t get to North Korea, you can still meet North Koreans though. We have seen them sneaking over the Mekong River into Thailand after conducting a 2000 mile journey from their impoverished homeland. They know that if they make it in one piece, the Thais will quietly and unofficially ‘hand them over’ to the South Koreans, who will fly them off to Seoul and provide a new life for them.
That’s a problem for Kim Jong-il’s replacement, his 20-something son Kim Jong-un (nobody seems to know his real age). Inexplicable as it seems with its food shortages and basket-case economy, North Korea has been revolution-proof up till now. Increasingly, however, the citizens of the DPRK know a better life awaits them – if they can get out.
Mobile phones are now commonplace and the men and women who smuggle out citizens, smuggle in televisions and DVDs and DVD players. They know there is a better life to be had as an illegal migrant in China, or a legitimate one in South Korea,if the can get there of course – and roughly 20,000 have already done so.
So, Kim Jong-un takes over a country that is similarly repressive, yet no longer in the dark. This an undesirable situation for all dictatorships everywhere. It’s why I wonder what the people of Pyongyang thinking as they weep. Are they crying for the DPRP – or crying out in frustration?