Slashdot Mirror
North Korea Erases Executed Official From the Internet
itwbennett writes "The North Korean state propaganda machine has edited and deleted hundreds of news articles that mention Jang Song Thaek, the former top government and party official and uncle to leader Kim Jong Un, who was executed Thursday. Earlier this week, Jang was arrested in front of hundreds of senior members of the ruling Worker's Party of Korea and denounced for numerous alleged acts against the state and Kim Jong Un. From arrest to trial to death took only four days and the unprecedented fall from grace is widely being interpreted as an attempt by Kim Jong Un to keep officials loyal and scared."
The term 'Orwellian' tends to be overused a bit these days. But, having read 1984, this is something straight out of that book. The adjective is appropriate in this situation: Go ahead and use it.
They exercised his right to a speedy trial all right.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
It sucks to be anyone in North Korea, even Kim Jong Un. This is a man who has to kill people every once in a while to make sure people know who's in charge.
[Comment redacted]
"is widely being interpreted as an attempt by Kim Jong Un to keep officials loyal and scared."
Sounds like Stalin all over again....
"The purge was motivated by the desire to remove dissenters from the Communist Party and to consolidate the authority of Joseph Stalin. " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Purge
Uh... Slashdot is on the Internet last time I checked, and this article RIGHT HERE mentions Jang Song Thaek, so I'm pretty sure he was not "erased from the Internet".
How soon before what's left of your pathetic, useless brain leaks out the one nostril you don't pick?
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
it sucks the sweat off a dead man's balls.
"That's not how the Internet works."
Oh sure, the locals (not having ample Internet, and being fed the story by speakers across the countryside) might think his uncle that taught him his tricks was a traitor scumdog etcetera because that's the story Kim Jong-Un has concocted recently, but the rest of the world hasn't lost their copies of the newspaper, the stories that are on the websites, and other proofs of concept that Photoshop or a text editor aren't going to negate from the other 99% of the world's media.
Laughter is the Spackle of the Soul.
Welcome to the UK... several hundred years ago. I'm Henry the VIIIth I am, Henry the VIIIth I am, I am...
I'll take "never", for that one. Outside of diseased minds and idiot trolls, no one actually thinks that's a legitimate possibility let alone likely outcome.
"You have disappointed me. From hereon: You're dead to me."
Laughter is the Spackle of the Soul.
How is this news, again? I thought that was standard operating procedure in North Korea for the past few decades...
http://imgur.com/gallery/1tBxe
In china, they have whole departments for the social networks to delete posts containing certain phrases. Like entire buildings full of people monitoring what they are saying, and deciphering codes just so they can control what people talk about.
Literally deleted within 15 minutes.
There are a lot of diseased minds among Tea Party and Libertarian types.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Why are millions of people afraid of a 3 foot tall man with the motor skills and mind set of an obese infant? Why doesn't someone karate chop his goofy ass out of the country?
... I bet none of them are killed. Maybe they sit all together in an restaurant in USA eating some Chinese food.
Ah, the owners of Slashdot doing their daily patriotic duty, promoting NON-TECHNICAL stories on a so-called nerd site, if in doing so they push warmongering propaganda against North Korea, China, Russia, Iran or Syria, or propaganda designed to make the sheeple think Israel or its political ally, Saudi Arabia, are wonderful nations.
Meanwhile, one can watch online videos proving that the recent massacre at a Yemeni hospital was carried out be special forces, NOT terrorists, which when combined with Obama's murder of an entire group of wedding travellers yesterday in Yemen leave us in no doubt that the USA ordered both acts as a specific part of their 'strategy of tension' operations in Yemen- designed to create the same horrific circumstances currently seen in Syria.
Obama not only mass murders civilians across the globe, he actually boasts about his "taste for murder" at political gatherings with his allies. So tell me again why you allow the owners of Slashdot to force you to notice the speck of sawdust in the eye of another, while ignoring the plank in your own eye?
I think it was Stalin who erased people from existence. paintings, books, tax roles, every mention in every place. Very thorough, and very very paranoid.
So many people disappear and are never heard from again. Only a few get media coverage.
Why doesn't someone karate chop his goofy ass out of the country?
That may have been what his uncle was trying to do.
Laughter is the Spackle of the Soul.
Considering that the basic prerequisite for overthrowing the Republic is to gain the personal loyalty of the military (and preferably the veterans, especially in places like the US where they are armed), I'd say either "never" or "when he feels like committing suicide". The US military oath is to obey the constitution first. A president who declared himself supreme leader would suffer from a case of high velocity lead poisoning very quickly.
-- Support a free market in the field of government
I never heard of him before this article; now he's indelible.
If you are going to use him as an example, you can't go and delete all references to him. Then no one will be scared of the consequences that befell him. Because they can't find out.
More like a banana republic with nukes than the USSR, but we can presume Kim has taken some historical tips.
Laughter is the Spackle of the Soul.
The US military oath is to obey the constitution first.
So is the oath of all public officials. What's your point?
A president who declared himself supreme leader would suffer from a case of high velocity lead poisoning very quickly.
No, most of you Internet tough guys would be cowering in your homes.
" I will erase even the memory of Thaek from the histories..." Anakin, Xerxes, Is there no quotable threshold this 'Un won't breech?
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
I'll take "never", for that one. Outside of diseased minds and idiot trolls, no one actually thinks that's a legitimate possibility let alone likely outcome.
Can you say "extrajudicial killings of US citizens"?
West: media conglomerate exercise its "property right" to amend or remove articles;
NK: state-owned media corporation exercises its "property right" to amend or remove articles.
Hell, Britain's Conservative Party recently erased a decade's worth of articles and speeches full of broken Party promises, then set robots.txt so it'd be wiped from archive.org.
And, yeah, summary executions suck. I mean I just about prefer a 4-day summary public execution to a secretive bomb-from-overhead summary execution, but neither's justice.
There is a lot of evidence that NK sucks: "too many" punishments for political crimes (every nation punishes the politically dangerous, but most are more selective); collective punishment of families; etc. But its ability to selectively document or revise history is not something unique to NK. Nor is its ability to summarily execute. And justice in the US from "lol rape lol" to the zoo conditions of Miami County PTDC point to a barbaric regime here, though our media is much less motivated to report treatment of our inmates than the "enemy"'s.
So let's not go down the bullshit "at least we're not as bad as NK" route. Of course we're not as bad as NK, but we should be moving much further away from them, not rest on our laurels because we're better.
Kind sir, I must point out that you are incorrect. Our venerated Dear Leader, Kim Jong-Un's father, invented the internet. This knowledge would have been passed from father to son due to their god-like telepathic abilities. I am certain that the person you are referring to, who I can no longer remember, never actually existed on the internet and is purely a figment of your over active imaginations.
Or the North Korea Intranet?
You make a good point. This will be really embarassing for his memoirs: "I learned everything about leadership from my un--... uh, my dad." Of course he could spin this as having gifts from his deity since he can't admit his uncle existed and schooled him.
Also, whatever the North Korean version of Thanksgiving will be pretty awkward from henceforth.
"Auntie, you look good..."
"Eat shit, you little bastard."
Laughter is the Spackle of the Soul.
Don't be silly. Those are just imaginary things you silly "idiot troll". Just like his massive expansion of domestic surveillance. Obummer is simply bringing us hope and change. Don't make us send a drone at you for questioning Dear Leader.
Senator Obama voted for warrantless NSA spying 4 months before he was elected President. Try paying attention some time.
He could have been a jerk, and tried to give the kid a hard time. On the other hand, killing a relative --one who goomed you for the job you now have-- is a signal that one of us has already gone batshit crazy. I think part of the problem is that absolute power corrupts absolutely. I would surmise that the power structure in the hermit kingdom is fragile with those at the top demanding utter and complete fealty from underlings. Any kind of 'second signal' from on high means that you have to nip that signal in the bud. An entire legion of followers following the 'second signal' must be brought into line if there is to be harmony. The fragility of the system means any 'correction signal' must be unambiguous and transparent through 100 levels of power, from warlord to peon. The correction signal in this case meant the death of an uncle. The kid now has complete fealty of all the generals. They don't dare breath a word against the fat kid. Also it sends a signal to others that the kid is batshit crazy. I don't know what parallels you can draw between the release of the American this past week and the killing of the uncle, but something in the back of my head says they might be related (like uncle was saying: 'kill the American, show us you have a pair...chicken', and the kid spared the American, and showed the uncle that he has a pair). Just a guess, but like I said...the power structure is fragile, and the system and kid are batshit crazy. An even more crazy idea is that the uncle dreamed up the idea and was willing to be the sacrifice so the kid would have power (although even I have a hard time with that one).
Nope, it seems to be that you weren't the one paying attention. He was making campaign promises in 2008 to end the warrantless wiretaps. One of his spokesmen in 2007 even claimed he would filibuster any act that would provide the telecoms with immunity.
In October 2007, Obama spokesman Bill Burton issued this unequivocal statement to the liberal blog TPM Election Central: "To be clear: Barack will support a filibuster of any bill that includes retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies."
That is until he got into office and signed the law himself.
Look, his uncle was probably as much a despicable character as any in the NK ruling party, likely performing or being complicit in any number of crimes against humanity, so no real loss to the human race here in all likelihood. What I find disturbing though is that Jong-Un has displayed callous disregard for human life in recent months in order to maintain complete control over the population.
I had high hopes for him when I learned that he'd been schooled in Switzerland, spoke English and had made positive comments in the past about the plight of the NK people. I figured he was young, idealistic, and maybe not all that different from myself -- had I been placed into a very difficult situation due to my family lineage. If placed in such a situation, I imagine that for a year or two I might have acted the part (whatever that means) in order to maintain control long enough to come up with a plan to bring some level of reforms to the country and ensure a longer-term transition to democracy.
Then again, you never really hear about a dictator who had a change of heart and became 'sane' after being able to operate with complete impunity for a while. I guess it's true when they say absolute power corrupts absolutely.
It seems that his age and boyish looks belie the fact that Jong-Il chose and groomed his successor very carefully.
If this is supposed to keep other officials scared, perhaps it will work.
If it was me in such a position, I'd be scared by it. Scared enough to make a preemptive strike just to be on the safe side.
The issue isn't the senior officers. It is the rank and file whose loyalty is required to overthrow the constitution.
-- Support a free market in the field of government
This guy was one of the top brass in NK. Lets keep in mind how many millions of tortures and death he's likely responsible for. The worlds better off without him, and we can only hope NK becomes unstable soon. Those poor people that live there, my God. How can we still have such a place on this earth.
...maybe 'lamb' is a bad word to use, but for all we know his uncle was a sacrifice and this was KJU's coming of age 'test'. They get him to beak off the king here and there and then see how he plays it. Why wait for corruption to happen naturally when you can help speed it along.
OTOH it's pretty much fucked up in any scenario. Par for NKs course.
Even the DPRK military leaders now see what is coming down the hill toward them.
My goodness, only one reference to the Memory hole? That is where erased history went in the book 1984 and this situation fits it perfectly and there is only one bloody reference. I'm disappointed.
Oh and BTW, they aren't erasing him, only the mentions of him that were good. They broadcast live him being dragged out (by his elbows) of the politburo by soldiers.
How is he supposed to serve as a lesson to others if they're busy purging all records of him?
"Remember what happened to Jang Song Thaek before you think about crossing me!"
"Who? I don't remember him at all."
"Exactly!"
Sounds a bit more like bad comedy than a real threat.
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
The term 'Orwellian' tends to be overused a bit these days. But, having read 1984, this is something straight out of that book
Millions of Jews died in the hand of the Nazis. Those who went through holocaust hell but survived fully comprehend the meaning of "LIBERTY".
Many people tried to scale the Berlin wall but was shot to death. Those who were successful fully appreciate the importance of "LIBERTY".
Some brave souls from North Korea risk everything and went through a very dangerous journey crossing the very heavily guarded border into China. To them, "LIBERTY" is worth much more than all the gold in the world.
They do not need "1984" to tell them the horror. They have experience it first hand.
I had befriended several holocaust survivors when I was in the United States (back when many of them were still alive, in the 70's) and I found that, for them, the same thing happen : Mere words could never justify the horrors that they had gone through.
The scars that they had was much worse than the scars that I have. They had their family slaughtered right in front of them, and yet, when I asked them to describe how they feel, they just shook their head.
They couldn't.
It's not the "hurt" that stopped them from telling me what happened. It's that SPOKEN WORDS itself is not sufficient.
Now, when I see people like you justifying your "understanding" the horror with a fiction, I sadly shake my head.
"1984" is but an old fiction.
You guys might find it useful, but to us who had been through the horror, that book does not even come close to the actual experience.
To us, "LIBERTY" means much more than life itself.
To some of you, that word is, a word.
That is why I mourn for the loss of "LIBERTY" of the United States of America but too many born and bred Americans themselves don't even understand what they have lost.
I humbly ask for your forgiveness because English is not my mother tongue. There are times, like now, I am at a total loss of words to describe how I feel.
All I can say is this --- You will never understand the importance of "LIBERTY" until you have lost it.
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
You have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FISA_Amendments_Act_of_2008
The Evil Bert meme can be extended so Kim Jong Un's Uncle shows up in various photos on the internet. That should drive the pudgy dictator nuts!
http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1380112/north-koreas-execution-kims-uncle-jang-will-test-ties-china
You have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.
And yet I have citations backing me up where he made campaign promises to end the wiretapping and statements from his own spokesman talking about how he would support filibustering the immunity. I think I very much do know what I'm talking about.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FISA_Amendments_Act_of_2008
And? Check the official vote rolls. He didn't vote for it. His name isn't even in the list. Want to try again?
The government turned the electricity on so people could watch him being dragged out of the meeting on TV.
That Kim Jong Un is no fool. When executing relatives, always do it just *before* xmas, not *after*. That way you save on buying a present.
lots of people named Kim. Kim Jong Ill, Kim Jong Un, Kim Kashandra, Kim Carnes, Kim Basinger.
wait they killed who? I don't know anyone by that name.
Just another second banana
"You've just been erased..."
Government's idea of a balanced budget: take money from the right pocket to balance...oh who am I kidding?
You modern right-wingers collectively can't muster the balls of Timothy McVeigh (who failed to kickstart anything because the rest of you are gutless) so all you do is snivel on the internet, forward Faux News articles, and grumble like a bunch of blue-haired biddies in your little circle jerk of mutual affirmation.
You don't do shit, so quit bitching. You rant about the "Greatest Generation" but you aren't a bump on their collective posterior.
YOUR GOPs relentless incompetence and pathetic candidates are why Obama (who I also dislike) is in office in the first place! YOU got him elected twice.
The refusal of modern so-called "conservatism" to do anything other than preach like the White Trash Christian Taliban you are at heart while gargling the balls of rich people who wouldn't be caught dead with you is a disgrace.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
Affluenza, the new disease of the rich and powerful -
http://slashdot.org/submission/3191311/affluenza
"Enforced Ignorance", what an interesting term. In the U.S., ignorance isn't actively enforced, but education is widely discouraged.
Due process, The North Koreans have apparently eliminated such inefficiency from their system. A shame to let them get ahead of us in that.
I recall hearing Kim Jong-Un already had someone executed by artillery in the recent past. I'm curious to know if he tried to top that with this one.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
The rest of the world can even do one better. We can photoshop Kim's dead uncle into pictures. It's likely that even "best Korea" can't avoid something if it somehow achieves annoying meme status.
If they are all scared of the fat little shit why doesn't someone just shoot him.
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
> And? Check the official vote rolls [senate.gov]. He didn't vote for it. His name isn't even in the list. Want to try again?
Please try to get the facts correct.
The FISA Amendments Act of 2008 (also called the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 Amendments Act of 2008, H.R. 6304
The roll call is here:
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=2&vote=00168 (vote 168 not 236 which you linked to)
His name is on that list from 2008. You linked to the extension vote in 2012...of course his name isn't on it as a voting SENATOR.
Obama's the PRESIDENT at that time.
Often wrong but never in doubt.
I am Jack9.
Everyone knows me.
Fuck you, fuck you twice. I no of no one who thinks that's a realistic possibility. Do no project your demented idea of what others are like upon them.
"The North Koreans possess no such technology"
Kim Jong Un didn't what to say "uncle" no matter what the situation is. Now he doesn't have to.
The only reason the constitution gets violated so much today, is because the american people are lazy ass bastards thet prefer to take care of themselves instead of fighting for the common good. This applies to most countries tough, including mine.
Tomorrow is another day...
Say what you will of the GOP. But I find it especially revealing how it's the right wings fault for not convincing/educating the unwashed masses to not vote for Obama. And you would be correct. We did failed to stop ignorance.
Evil prevails when good men do nothing. -Edmund Burke
Life is not for the lazy.
LOL. "Gutless" conservatives? The moment that conservatives actually did something the media would be all over them like stink on shit, telling the world that they're terrorists no better than McVeigh. You remember McVeigh? Executed.
It is rather telling that you think that a terror campaign would be a good choice for the Right...you must know something they don't. I also like the "white trash" bigoted comment, shows your true colors. Stay classy!
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
You find it offensive that someone might understand liberty without having gone through what you did?
Whoa ... hold yer horses there !!
This is what I wrote:
Now, when I see people like you justifying your "understanding" the horror with a fiction, I sadly shake my head.
I was sad.
I was sad that people having to rely on an old fiction to understand the true nature of the human society.
Where did you get the impression that I was " offended " ?
If I, for whatever reason, ever gave the impression that I was even a bit offended, please do accept my apology.
To be clear
"To be clear" seems to be Obama's way of saying, "I am about to be unclear."
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
They also deleted his Facebook profile ... oh wait, they can't.
You haven't read 1994
When I enrolled into the university in America back in the early 1970's my English needed a boost, so they put me into some "intensive English program", something like the ESL classes of today
In the classes the instructor asked us to read "Animal Farm", "1984" and stuffs like that and that we had to write report and do presentation (kinda like show and tell) in front of the class
In other words, I not only read "1984", I read that fiction __before_i>_ the year of 1984
I do not know which year you were born, but there is a possibility that when I read that book, you were not born yet.
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
sorry lol
The reason Obama won each time wasn't because an insufficient number of people didn't trust/like him -- it's the "lesser evil"voting method at work. It's a lot like the old joke about being in a crowd chased by a monster:the folks that survive aren't all the fastest, they're simply not the slowest.
In 2008, the Democratic Party was dangerously split by hostility between Obama's & Clinton's fans, and the Left was further fractured by the voters angry over Democrat politicians not living up to their pledge to change things. The GOPlost that time because of the damage Bush/Cheney had caused and because the GOP's candidates were literally considered laughably awful.
In 2012, Left-leaning voters were extremely angry over the performance both Obama *and*the other Democrats had given over the previous four years. There was a very real chance that the Democrats were going to lose...but because the Right-Wing politicians had managed to make their side look like it would've probably caused even more damage, the GOP once again lost.
That's the reason that the guy you're responding to blamed the GOP for putting Obama in power -- it could've convinced any number of people that the guy wasn't a great candidate, but it *couldn't* convince them that its own candidates weren't worse in one way or another. It's something to keep in mind in the near future, too; 2016 will be here before we know it...
North Korea doesn't have a death row. It's more like a death toboggan chute.
Jang Sung-taek lifted himself to the power in his 20s via marriage. It is safe to say that he has had 40 years to build social networks within the North Korean elite.
Kim Jong Un is a heir to a communist tyrant but we didn't hear from him until 2009. It is quite safe to assume that he has had only four years of time to make alliances with the North Korean elite, military and Workers party - and only two years as a ruler.
Jang Sung-taeks network of people was most likely within the Workers Party of North Korea.
I would say that people who knew Jang Sung-taek is most likely in thousands and people who valued him is also very high. My guess is that now the fat boy has to be extra paranoid - he can not possibly know the extent of J.S-t's social network. Some of J-S.t's friend may have guns, or just a knives, and as we can see Kim Jong Un is not fat enough to be stab proof. I am expecting that North Korea may go to a bloody revolt after all.
He murdered his uncle for political reasons and doesn't want everyone to know about it, that kind of behaviour predates 1984 by several millennia.
Actually, we don't really know that. We are too far removed from it. It could also be that somebody else had his uncle murdered to show him what could happen to him, or to punish him, or otherwise keep him in line. The Uncle would be an obvious target for that kind of move.
Putin. Kaderov. Omar al-Bashir. To name three in power at the moment.
You're reading way too much into it. Look, it's real simple this time. Obama won on "like-ability", not capability.
Read up on the JFK / Nixon debate of 1960. Those that heard it on the radio thought Nixon was the better candidate on ideas alone. Yet those that watched it on TV hands down thought JFK won. JFK looked handsome and sat with a calm confident posture. Nixon was recovering from previous hospitalization. Proof that image is everything in an election!
Life is not for the lazy.
It's either, "lesser evil", or "the devil we know." People were fearful of Romney because they didn't know him. Their ignorance allowed them to assume the worst based on his wealth, no-context statements, and political talking points. And of course he's a Republican who designed something very similar to the Affordable Care Act. That's a double strike. Democrats couldn't vote for him because he was too easy to illustrate as a wealthy Republican cartoon character, and Republicans couldn't vote for him because he did the same thing Obama did. Never-mind what was written by the Heritage Foundation in the 90s, now anything similar to the ACA is radioactive.
I voted for Romney, but it was a hard vote. I didn't like either option, but fear was enough for me to break my promise to vote third party. These days I recognize that it doesn't matter who the President is. Politicians spend all their lives making themselves look good by publicly saying and doing whatever it is the people like, then when they're elected to the top-office, they do whatever they want. It happens repeatedly and everywhere. When it comes to elections, the votes that really matter are for your Representatives and Senators... but for how long is anybodies guess, since they're losing power and legitimacy.
In 2016 Hillary Clinton will be elected. The whole Benghazi thing has successfully been illustrated as a tin-foil hat conspiracy thing. The official line that there was nothing anybody could do, not the Marines, and much less our top diplomat, is the line that has won out. No candidate stands a chance against a Clinton. As president what she'd do is anyone's guess, though I would hope that we don't have a rubber-stamp legislative and judicial branch by that time.
Where they pride themselves on the use of Orwell's 1984 as the standard operating manual of State propaganda.
Read up on Luntz's Dunces back in fall 2012 and pair that up with the GALLUP numbers at the time. Almost split in difference, most people had already made up their mind. However a massive double-digit of independent voters were rocking back and forth right up to election. A wild card.
Let's focus on that last group for a moment. What Luntz showed on TV was that the independent voter was making decisions based on feelings, not facts. Their options swayed back and forth like seaweed in shallow ocean waters. Back and forth, back and forth. For this very large representative group, it was driven purely on emotion.
So basically the decision was largely on tribalism and emotion. Competency was way at the bottom of the list for most Americans.
Life is not for the lazy.
Guess the little turd thought Jang may just have been a little more popular than him. Turds think this way!
My karma is bad. Don't get too close!!!
Notice that there were no more Wacos or Ruby Ridges after OK City? Sometimes force works. "Class" is bullshit when class doesn't succeed.
Of course mainly what I'm getting at is the all talk and zero action aspect of modern conservatards.
The lefty kids in the 1960s who had the balls to protest even when that ensured they'd be teargassed and beaten had the guts to keep doing it. The anti-WTO folks still do, but I don't see shit from the old Rightist gummers. The talk doesn't match the action!
If you SAY that Obama is the Antichrist and the end of the Republic then FAIL to act, that makes you a hypocrite.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."