#kim jong un dies

[rightnewshindi]

उत्तर कोरिया में बाढ़ के कारण हुई 1000 लोगों की मौत, किम जोंग उन ने 30 अधिकारियों को फांसी पर लटकाया

North Korea News: उत्तरी कोरिया के शासक किम जोंग उन का तानाशाही वाला चेहरा फिर उजागर हुआ है। मीडिया रिपोर्ट के मुताबिक, देश में बाढ़ को रोकने में विफल होने के कारण 30 सरकारी अधिकारियों को फांसी पर लटका दिया। कुछ और अधिकारियों को मौत की सजा देने का आदेश दिया गया है। आपको बता दें कि बाढ़ में उत्तर कोरिया में अब तक 1000 से अधिक लोगों की मौत हो चुकी है। चागांग प्रांत में भारी बारिश और भूस्खलन के कारण…

[itsslowsonic]

Once again, if you want to have a conversation or debate with me, please use facts. Please use facts!

As I mentioned before, there's always someone who would say Trump is a dictator and he harmed the US democracy. Do you know what a dictator is? Do you know what is the definition of democracy? Do you have any proof that he harmed democracy? A dictator can do whatever he wants in his country. A dictator would be the ruler of his country until he died. Did Trump do that? Did Trump eliminate the election after 2016? Did Trump ban all other parties after 2016? In China, all the media must worship Xi Jinping 24/7. In North Korea, all the media must worship Kim Jong Un 24/7. In Iran, all the media must worship Ali Khamenei 24/7. Did this happen in the US? Since 2016, almost everything about Trump in the main media has been negative. Then you tell me that he was a dictator? Use your brain, use your common sense to think about it, who wants to take your guns? Did Trump ever say that? A dictator would let you keep your guns to fight his dictatorship? Are Chinese people allowed to have guns? Are North Korean people allowed to have guns? Are Iranian people allowed to have guns? Once again, who wants to take your guns but keep theirs?

Lies will never defeat the truth!

You want to live without your brain and common sense. Go ahead, no one can save you. You deserve the suffering and despair, not the US citizens who still have common sense, don't drag us into it.

[deadpresidents]

How many absolute monarchs are there in the world?

•King Salman of Saudi Arabia •Pope Francis •Sultan Haitham bin Tariq of Oman •Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei •The King of Swaziland (now Eswatini): King Mswati III of Swaziland (AKA Eswatini) •United Arab Emirates: Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed (Each of the seven Emirates that form the UAE have their own absolute monarch and Sheikh MBZ, as leader of Dubai, is the overall ruler of the nation.)

Did I miss anybody? I think those are the only absolute monarchs still in power today. The rest of the world's royalty are constitutional monarchs, so they reign but do not rule.

(There's an argument for including Kim Jong Un on the list of absolute monarchs despite the fact that he's not a King and North Korea is a Communist country. He's obviously a dictator, but the Kim dynasty has virtually ruled North Korea like a secular monarchy for nearly 75 years with the supreme leaders inheriting their power through hereditary succession. Kim Jong Un took over immediately upon the death of his father, Kim Jong Il, who had assumed power when his father -- North Korea's first paramount leader, Kim Il Sung -- died in 1994. Of course, North Korea isn't officially considered a monarchy, but the manner in which the Kim family has ruled the country and transferred power from father-to-son for three generations and counting resembles the structure of an absolute monarchy more than a "traditional" totalitarian dictatorship.)

[crappy-cat-the-tabby-cat]

i don't know about you guys but if i had the death note i would make sure the big horrible people die comedically ironic deaths.

elon musk would get trapped in a cybertruck as it explodes. jeff bezos gets stuck in an amazon warehouse and dies of malnutrion and bladder issues. j.k. rowling gets blasted by a spontaneous combustion spell cast by the world's only real wizard. andrew tate gets mauled to death by wolves. kim jong un dies of heart failure. piano falls on xi jinping

[tomorrowusa]

North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un is apparently in need of medicine.

Kim drinks too much, eats too much, and smokes too much. He is a psychopath who once had an official stripped naked and eaten by dogs. So if you were his doctor, would you tell him that something is wrong with him and that he needs to adjust his lifestyle?

Kim spends a huge amount of money developing nuclear weapons but neglects healthcare – especially public health. North Korea had a disastrous response to COVID-19, even worse than that of the Trump administration. So even the Kim clan, communist absolute monarchs, can't rely on internal health providers and medicines.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has regained weight and appears to have obesity-related health problems such as high blood pressure and diabetes, and his officials are looking for new medicines abroad to treat them, South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers Monday. The 40-year-old Kim, known for heavy drinking and smoking, comes from a family with a history of heart problems. Both his father and grandfather, who ruled North Korea before his 2011 inheritance of power, died of heart issues. Some observers said Kim, who is about 170 centimeters (5 feet, 7 inches) tall and previously weighed 140 kilograms (308 pounds), appeared to have lost a large amount of weight in 2021, likely from changing his diet. But recent state media footage show he has regained the weight. On Monday, the National Intelligence Service, South Korea’s main spy agency, told lawmakers in a closed-door briefing that Kim is estimated to weigh about 140 kilograms (308 pounds) again and is in a high-risk group for heart disease, according to Lee Seong Kweun, one of the lawmakers.

There is already speculation about Kim Jong-un's successor. He has a tween daughter who seems to be the favorite at this point.

The NIS in its Monday briefing maintained its assessment that Kim’s preteen daughter, reportedly named Kim Ju Ae, is bolstering her likely status as her father’s heir apparent. But the NIS said it cannot rule out the possibility that she could be replaced by one of her siblings because she hasn’t been officially designated as her father’s successor. Speculation about Kim Ju Ae, who is about 10 or 11 years old, flared when she accompanied her father at high-profile public events starting in late 2022. State media called her Kim Jong Un’s “most beloved” or “respected” child and churned out footage and photos proving her rising political standing and closeness with her father. The NIS told lawmakers that at least 60% of Kim Ju Ae’s public activities have involved attending military events with her father.

If Kim Jong-un suddenly dies, there's the potential for a succession battle which could be like House of the Dragon but with nukes.

[donald-trump-official]

Along with the highly collectible Trump Trading Cards, make sure to pick up some of this other great Donald Trump memorabilia!

- the handkerchief Donald used during his dinner with Kim Jong Un! ($75)

- three partially empty tubes of bronzer! ($50)

- the firehose Donald trump used to put out the world trade centers! ($375)

- a vintage box of trump steaks! ($75)

- an original score sheet from the president’s most recent round of golf! ($30)

- the Saudi orb! ($5,000)

- Donald Trump’s positive covid test from that time he almost died! ($100)

- the “T” from Donald Trump’s high roller Atlantic City casino! ($750)

- REAL locks of hair from the toupée he wore 2017-19! ($450)

- A classified document! ($1,000,000,000)

[haveievermentioned]

If Alan does get out of the dark place, imagine Barry and Alice catching him up on the news.

Alan: Okay, so... We have this "Arab Spring" thing, A Syrian Civil War which is related, multiple assassinations or attempted assassinations, the US is revealed to be torturing people, South Sudan joins the UN, the end of the space shuttle program, something called "Occupy Wall Street", Kim Jong-Il dies, and a major video game called "Minecraft" is released. Wow that is a lot. Barry: That's just 2011. Alan:... Why are you giving me shots? Alice: there was a pandemic in 2020. Alan: And it's... 2023 now? Alice: yes. Barry: We have SO MUCH MORE to tell you.

[risposte-e-reblog-randagi]

Cosa pensi a riguardo del Gen. Vannaci?

Caro anonimo,

provo ad evitare le ovvietà ed anche ad arginare la voglia di ricorrere ad un abuso di turpiloquio, corredato dalla cretiva fantasia che mi piace pensare mi caratterizzi, e cerco di fare una analisi distaccata ed oggettiva.

Al di là del giudizio sulla persona (per certo un militare di successo e di grande preparazione, ottenuta tramite ferrea disciplina ed indubbio impegno, ma altrettanto per certo un essere umano dotato di un ego grande come la provincia di Como, una presunzione gigantesca ed una capacità di mettersi in discussione che a confronto Kim Jong-un è un timido) credo che Vannacci sia una risposta drammaticamente sbagliata ad una domanda tutto sommato lecita e la domanda è ''che ne sarà di me?''.

Mi spiego meglio: un grumo (più o meno grosso) di conservatorismo alberga ahimé in ognuno di noi, soprattutto se la situazione, il contesto, in cui viviamo ci è sostanzialmente affine (o tale lo percepiamo) e quindi, i forti cambiamenti ci destabilizzano, anche e soprattutto a livello personale, e questo è ancora più vero quando, con lucidità, ci si rende conto d'essere entrati nell'ultimo terzo della vita, cioè un po' in ritardo per attuare e poi godersi rivoluzioni e cambiamenti. Socialmente parlando, al momento, potrebbe destare preoccupazione il forte mutamento (al momento più ancora in divenire che nel presente) che l'immigrazione, l'internazionalizzazione dei gusti, delle abitudini e la diversa scala su cui, sul piano sessuale e di autodefinizione di genere, sembra declinarsi il mondo. Il problema, però, è che dai tempi del homo neanderthaliensis preoccupato dell'arrivo nelle pianure europee del homo sapiens, chi ai cambiamenti sa rispondere solo con la resistenza e l'opposizione, finisce per estinguersi...io sono piemontese e da bambino mi ricordo bene i cretini Vannacci ante-litteram che si opponevano all'immigrazione dal sud Italia, minacciando di ''mandare tutti i taroni a casa loro'', disperati dal vedere sparire il dialetto sabaudo come modo di comunicare o giocare nella squadra locale di calcio dei ragazzi calabresi o pugliesi, o i nostalgici dell'uomo a lavorare e la donna a casa a cucinare, o quelli che non concepivano la follia di mettersi i jeans per andare a lavorare, cioè i Vannacci sono sempre esistiti, hanno sempre avuto un momentaneo successo ed hanno finito sempre per sparire, spesso sostituiti da un altra forma di conservatorismo. A me fa molto ridere (per quanto lo faccia amaramente) vedere i figli degli immigrati dal sud Italia lamentarsi dell'arrivo dei rumeni ed i rumeni lamentarsi dei maghrebini ed i maghrebini prendere le distanze dai senegalesi e non mi stupirei se, fra qualche anno, i senegalesi prenderanno posizione contro l'arrivo di chi sa chi...senza contare che, per parafrasare De Crescenzo, siamo tutti i malsopportati di qualcuno.

Intendo che al cambiamento è impossibile opporsi, inutile resistere e stupido pensare di poterlo addirittura invertire e che conviene fare buon viso a cattivo (ma per davvero, poi?) gioco, esercitare il diritto a mantenere le abitudini che più a noi si confanno e sviluppare la capacità di convivere con il nuovo.

I Vannacci vincono le battaglie, come i sindaci liguri che vietarono i bikini sulle loro spiagge a metà anni sessanta, come coloro che segregarono le popolazioni di colore in Sud Africa e negli USA, come coloro che si opposero all'estensione del voto alle donne, o al divorzio, o alla battaglia per la parità retributiva, o all'ingresso delle donne nelle forze dell'ordine, per citare giusto due cose, ma perdono sempre le guerre.

[odinsblog]

Usually, when refugees flee an oppressive regime, they know what they’re leaving behind; they can taste the freedom they’re searching for. But part of the story “Beyond Utopia” tells is that the citizens of North Korea don’t fully understand how oppressed they are. They can’t; they’ve never seen any other way of being.

In that sense, apart from Nazi Germany, the country that North Korea most resembles is Mao’s China during the insanity of the Cultural Revolution and the Great Leap Forward. Tens of millions of people died in China from famine, due to Mao’s disastrously unhinged economic policies. In the aftermath, partly to cover all that up, China became the first National Propaganda Media State, subjecting its vast populace to a daily brainwashing, with Mao held up as a living deity.

The North Korean regime, in many ways a depraved outgrowth of Maoism, goes even further. As the film shows us, it has taken its made-up theology from the Bible, with Kim Jong-un portrayed as a Christ figure, and we see footage of the great mass stadium exhibitions that the citizens, including thousands of schoolchildren, rehearse for a year at a time — displays that look like the opening ceremony of the Olympics staged on a mile-wide electronic billboard in which every LED light is a choreographed human being. All of this loony-tunes spectacle is meant to celebrate the “utopia” of North Korea, with the outside world, especially America, portrayed as such a demonic place that the only word used to refer to someone in the U.S. is “American-bastard.”

The joyless suppression of life in North Korea prompts at least some citizens to suspect that a better life must lay on the other side. The family of defectors in “Beyond Utopia” are like that; they’re ordinary people who have put themselves on a moving mission.

(continue reading) related ←

[levysoft]

In Corea del Nord è stata eseguita la condanna a morte di un ragazzo di 22 anni giudicato colpevole di aver visto film sudcoreani e ascoltato musica come il k-pop – genere musicale sudcoreano mescolato o ispirato alla musica pop statunitense – in violazione della legge che vieta di farlo. Lo ha evidenziato l’ultimo rapporto sui diritti umani in Corea del Nord, diffuso giovedì dal ministero per l’Unificazione della Corea del Sud: è la prima volta che il governo sudcoreano conferma che una persona è stata uccisa per motivi simili in Corea del Nord, ma non sarebbe il primo caso simile.

Il rapporto si basa sulle testimonianze di 649 persone scappate dalla Corea del Nord e la notizia della condanna a morte su quanto raccontato in forma anonima da una di queste. Il ragazzo era originario della provincia dello Hwanghae Meridionale, nel sud-ovest della Corea del Nord, ed è stato ucciso pubblicamente nel 2022 per aver ascoltato 70 canzoni sudcoreane e visto tre film, che poi avrebbe passato ad altre sette persone.

Questo viola una legge approvata nel 2020 che proibisce qualunque forma di diffusione di «ideologia e cultura reazionaria» originaria di «paesi ostili»: riguarda in particolare la cultura sudcoreana, che la Corea del Nord ritiene una grave minaccia per la propria società, si rivolge soprattutto alle persone giovani e in caso di violazioni prevede appunto la pena di morte. Tra le altre cose la legge vieta alle donne di indossare abiti da sposa bianchi, di bere vino dai calici o di indossare occhiali da sole, tutte abitudini diffuse sia in Occidente che in Corea del Sud. Nel 2022 inoltre il regime di Kim Jong Un ha introdotto ulteriori misure che vietano alle persone nordcoreane di indossare indumenti come i jeans e maglie con marchi stranieri, così come di portare capelli tinti o troppo lunghi.

Quello diffuso giovedì è il secondo rapporto che riguarda gli abusi e le violazioni dei diritti delle persone in Corea del Nord dopo quello del 2023, ed evidenzia altri casi di esecuzioni pubbliche per chi aveva violato la legge. In base a un rapporto pubblicato nel dicembre del 2021 dal Transitional Justice Working Group, un’organizzazione per i diritti umani di Seul, le persone uccise pubblicamente per aver guardato o diffuso media sudcoreani, tra cui video k-pop, erano almeno sette. Il rapporto diceva che da quando Kim Jong Un governava il paese c’erano state almeno 23 uccisioni pubbliche: due per impiccagione e le altre con armi da fuoco.

[sanityshorror]

Remember that time everyone thought Kim Jong Un died, and then the Internet started non ironically simping for his sister...? Or was that a fever dream...? It feels like a fever dream but I vividly remember that..💀

[silverfox66]

Instead of coming up with arguments about why they think the application for an arrest warrant for Netanyahu, people are just throwing around endless whataboutism, which is always a bad look.

"What about Assad?" - ICC has limited jurisdiction over that one, and russia & China is blocking the UNSC resolution to refer Syria to the ICC.

"What about Khamenei?" - No jurisdiction.

"What about Kim Jong Un?" - No jurisdiction. At all.

Or my absolute favorite whataboutism:

"What about Churchill/Roosevelt?" - Those guys died decades before the ICC was even established..... just what....

[netzss]

김정은, 호화로운 SUV로 홍수를 극복하다 Kim Jong Un Menghadapi Banjir dengan SUV Mewah 2024년 7월 27일, 폭우가 북한 국경 지역과 중국 일부 지역, 특히 평안도의 신의주를 강타했습니다. 매우 높은 강우량으로 인해 압록강이 범람하여 주변 지역을 침수시켰습니다. 이로 인해 약 5,000명의 주민들이 도로와 인프라가 마비되어 고립되었습니다. Pada 27 Juli 2024, hujan lebat melanda wilayah perbatasan Korea Utara dan sebagian sisi China, khususnya di Kota Sinuiju, Provinsi Phyongan. Curah hujan yang sangat tinggi menyebabkan sungai Amnok meluap dan menggenangi area sekitarnya. Akibatnya, sekitar 5.000 penduduk di kawasan tersebut terisolasi akibat banjir yang melumpuhkan akses jalan dan infrastruktur.

[battleangel]

Come Fly the Dead Skies

Boeing and "trust and quality"?

Being used in the same stratosphere?

"Boeing CEO steps down".

And?????????? Thats it???

How many times do the plebian slaves need to see the movie to understand these scripts are written years in advance?

Thats why this has happened again and again.

Its the same script.

CEO steps down.

That means the "company is really sorry".

Does it though??????????

Public relations campaign ensues to "earn back the public's trust".

Fake apology, fake contriteness, fake tough new regulations from fill in the Alphabet Soup regulator - FDA, FAA, take your pick.

The public gets bored & moves on in a week, one month absolute max.

The dead Boeing whistleblowers and suicide'd Ozempians are forgotten.

The public, with their collective constant amnesia & new shiny toy "theres a new dance on the for you page on TikTok" syndrome continues apace.

The sloppy fake suicides that are actually homicides, the death by poisoning passed off as"MRSA & the flu" in an otherwise previously perfectly healthy 40 year old unalive'd Boeing whistleblower, the Ozempic suicides for a "miracle weight loss drug" that hasnt even been extensively studied in people without diabetes that has not been on the market yet for five years so no long-term effects are known but even the side effects we know now include thyroid issues, cancer and fucking suicide are just brushed aside, papered over and forgotten about for The Next Thing.

Trump was found guilty.

I mean, Hunter Biden.

Biden/Trump debate is July 11th.

Putin met up with Kim Jong-Un.

Kai Cenat is on Ozempic.

I mean, Kelly Osborne.

I mean, Oprah.

I mean, Kelly Clarkson.

Cornel is the dark horse candidate to look out for.

I mean, Jill Stein.

I mean, Claudia Karina.

Theres a new Star Wars show.

I mean, movie.

What are you doing for 4th of July?

Where are you going for your summer vacation?

Where are you flying to?

Where are you going on your cruise?

Where are you staying?

Which beach are you going to?

Have you lost those ten pounds to wear your bikini?

OTAs have started for the NFL.

Trevor Lawrence got $275 million.

Its so hot lately.

Heat waves. Humidity.

Like sticking your head in an oven.

Engines. 737s. Fuselage doors. Weapons manufacturers. Aerospace defense. Northrop Grumman. Dead Palestinian children. War is Peace. Raytheon. Lockheed Martin. Crashed planes. Planes that caught on fire. Faulty engines. FAA violations.

Shot in the head in a rental car in a hotel parking lot the day of open court testimony against Boeing with drivers license and car keys in hotel room but it was definitely a suicide.

Not foul play. Not homicide. Not retaliation. Not punishing whistleblowers. Not intimidation through violence & fear. Not protecting defense contracts with the US government worth billions.

40 year old otherwise healthy man dies of "MRSA infection" & "the flu" with symptoms that are exactly the same symptoms that an individual would experience if they were poisoned to death.

Similarly to the suicide'd whistleblower in the hotel parking lot who was set to testify against Boeing in open court, this 40 year old had recently filed an FAA complaint against Boeing.

The second dead Boeing whistleblower in just two months.

Boeing declined to comment either death.

Surprise surprise.

Former co-workers & current Boeing employees would only speak anonymously and off the record but they all expressed serious doubt that either death was anything but retaliatory murder for speaking out against Boeing cutting corners with safety inspections and regulations to save money.

They also spoke -- anonymously & off the record ofcourse -- about a culture of fear, secrecy & intimidation that permeates all levels of Boeing, private conversations between employees on company ground being recorded by Boeing and the inability to speak freely at work because "someones always watching and listening".

Dead hotel parking lot whistleblowers death was deemed a "suicide".

Naturally.

Dead previously healthy 40 year old whistleblowers quite random & mysterious "MRSA & flu" death which suspiciously mirrored the exact same symptoms seen in a death by poisioning was deemed "natural".

Naturally.

Then everyone returned to their regularly scheduled programming.

Next!

[beardedmrbean]

People in North Korea have told the BBC food is so scarce their neighbours have starved to death.

Exclusive interviews gathered inside the world's most isolated state suggest the situation is the worst it has been since the 1990s, experts say.

The government sealed its borders in 2020, cutting off vital supplies. It has also tightened control over people's lives, our interviewees say.

Pyongyang told the BBC it has always prioritised its citizens' interests.

The BBC has secretly interviewed three ordinary people in North Korea, with the help of the organisation Daily NK which operates a network of sources in the country. They told us that since the border closure, they are afraid they will either starve to death or be executed for flouting the rules. It is extremely rare to hear from people living in North Korea.

The interviews reveal a "devastating tragedy is unfolding" in the country, said Sokeel Park from Liberty in North Korea (LiNK), which supports North Korean escapees.

One woman living in the capital Pyongyang told us she knew a family of three who had starved to death at home. "We knocked on their door to give them water, but nobody answered," Ji Yeon said. When the authorities went inside, they found them dead, she said. Ji Yeon's name has been changed to protect her, along with those of the others we interviewed.

A construction worker who lives near the Chinese border, whom we have called Chan Ho, told us food supplies were so low that five people in his village had already died from starvation.

"At first, I was afraid of dying from Covid, but then I began to worry about starving to death," he said.

North Korea has never been able to produce enough food for its 26 million people. When it shut its border in January 2020, authorities stopped importing grain from China, as well as the fertilisers and machinery needed to grow food.

Meanwhile, they have fortified the border with fences, while reportedly ordering guards to shoot anyone trying to cross. This has made it nearly impossible for people to smuggle in food to sell at the unofficial markets, where most North Koreans shop.

A market trader from the north of the country, whom we have named Myong Suk, told us that almost three quarters of the products in her local market used to come from China, but that it was "empty now".

She, like others who make their living selling goods smuggled across the border, has seen most of her income disappear. She told us her family has never had so little to eat, and that recently people had been knocking on her door asking for food because they were so hungry.

From Pyongyang, Ji Yeon told us she had heard of people who had killed themselves at home or disappeared into the mountains to die, because they could no longer make a living.

She was struggling to feed her children, she said. Once, she went two days without eating and thought she was going to die in her sleep.

In the late 1990s, North Korea experienced a devastating famine which killed as many as three million people. Recent rumours of starvation, which these interviews corroborate, have prompted fears the country could be on the brink of another catastrophe.

The daughter who fled North Korea to find her mother

Beatings, forced abortions: Life in a North Korea prison

"That normal, middle-class people are seeing starvation in their neighbourhoods, is very concerning," said the North Korea economist Peter Ward. "We are not talking about full-scale societal collapse and mass starvation yet, but this does not look good."

Hanna Song, the director of NKDB, which documents human rights violations in North Korea, agreed. "For the past 10-15 years we have rarely heard of cases of starvation. This takes us back to the most difficult time in North Korean history."

Even the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has hinted at the seriousness of the situation - at one point referring openly to a "food crisis", while making various attempts to boost agricultural production. Despite this, he has prioritised funding his nuclear weapons programme, testing a record 63 ballistic missiles in 2022. One estimate puts the total cost of these tests at more than $500m (£398m) - more than the amount needed to make up for North Korea's annual grain shortfall.

Our interviewees also revealed how the government has used the past three years to increase its control over people's lives, by strengthening punishments and passing new laws.

Before the pandemic, more than 1,000 people would flee the country each year, crossing the Yalu River into China, according to numbers released by the South Korean government. The market trader Myong Suk told us it had become impossible to escape. "If you even approach the river now you will be given a harsh punishment, so almost nobody is crossing," she said.

The construction worker Chan Ho said his friend's son had recently witnessed several closed-door executions. In each one, three to four people had been killed for attempting to escape. "Every day it gets harder to live," he told us. "One wrong move and you are facing execution."

"We are stuck here waiting to die."

We put our findings to the North Korean government, which told us it "has always prioritised the interests of the people, even at difficult times".

"The people's well-being is our foremost priority, even in the face of trials and challenges," said a representative from the North Korean embassy in London.

They also said the information was "not entirely factual", claiming it had been "derived from fabricated testimonies from anti-DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] forces".

But Sokeel Park, from LiNK, said these interviews reveal a "triple whammy" of hardship. "The food situation has become more difficult, people have less freedom to fend for themselves, and it has become pretty much impossible to escape." They support the theory, he said, that "North Korea is now more repressive than it has ever been before."

In Pyongyang, Ji Yeon said the surveillance and crackdowns were now so ruthless that people did not trust each other. She was taken in for questioning under a new law, passed in December 2020, which bans people from sharing and consuming foreign films, TV shows and songs. Under this Reactionary Ideology and Culture Rejection Act, aimed at rooting out foreign information, those caught distributing South Korean content can be executed.

A former North Korean diplomat, who defected in 2019, said he was shocked by how extreme the crackdown on foreign influence had become. "Kim Jong Un is afraid that if people understand the situation they are in, and how wealthy South Korea is, they will start hating him and rise up," explained Ryu Hyun Woo.

Our interviews suggest that some people's loyalty has waned over the past three years.

"Before Covid, people viewed Kim Jong Un positively," Myong Suk said. "Now almost everyone is full of discontent."

[freelanceexorcist]

OK, now that I can act like a functioning member of society again...

Rebirth trailer spoilers ahoy!

-So what's the deal with the destruction in Zack's timeline? If he had lived, he'd have made it to Midgar long before the Sector 7 plate dropped. And everybody knows the world is ending? *Spock eyebrow raise* Fascinating.

-And there ARE alternate timelines in play. I feel seen.

-Rufus Shinra really is supposed to be a hot version of Kim Jong Un, isn't he?

-So how many more times must we endure Sephiroth's utter anguish in HD as the Lord intended? At least once more, Miss Swann.

-Did they get an actual Scottish person to voice Cait Sith this time around?

-Cloud on a damn Segway? In MY FFVII?

-So the black cloaked men are actually SOLDIERs suffering from degradation this time around and not Sephiroth clones. Hm. Or at least that's what the doctor-type guy theorizes. So how is it that Sephiroth can manifest using their physical bodies? Only G-type SOLDIERs are susceptible to degradation, right? Anyway, if this is the only evidence we get that Genesis existed at one point, it's all good.

-Sephiroth trying to get Cloud to bury the hatchet and Cloud always launching into the personification of "fuck this guy in particular." Time to try another approach, babe.

-MIDGAR ZOLOM. MID. GAR. ZOLOM.

-Please tell me that scene with Sephiroth and Cloud teaming up isn't just a bit of the Kalm flashback. Lie to me if you must.

-THIS:

...Because you're worth it.

-Andrea Rhodea won America's Got Talent and has a show in Vegas now!

-Just Dio things

My mans looking like a cross between Josh Brolin and a member of the Lollipop Guild

-Zack yeeting Cloud at Kyrie like "here take care of my comatose friend for a minute, totally not shifty looking stranger”

-Rufus Shinra kinda looks like Benedict Cumberbatch in this shot, doesn't he?

-Who dis? Please say it's not Glenn. Again, lie to me if you must. The only thing worse than this being Glenn is this being Genesis. The only thing worse than that is them being besties and joined at the hip. Then again, don't Mary Sues cancel each other out when they share a scene, or do they suck the life out of the story twice as fast?

-I reiterate, HOLYSHITHOLYSHITHOLYSHITHOL--

-Going hard on the "definitely not a vampire" vibe, too. I like it. Who's the VA? Doesn't sound like Steve Blum.

-"The reunion, when worlds merge..." OK, so was I right a while back about the timelines needing to be reunited? Sephiroth is saying this, so I wonder if this is Ore Sephiroth, because reuniting the timelines would run counter to Watashi's goal because he's always defeated. Don't mind me, I'm punchy today.

All in all, we ate pretty damn good today.