Kim Jong Il Death Watch
The Daily Mail has republished photos, released yesterday by KCNA, showing Kim Jong Il visiting what’s described elsewhere as the Kim Jong Suk Sanitarium. The report doesn’t specify what city it’s in, but Kim Jong Suk is Kim Jong Il’s mother and a native of Hoeryong in North Hamgyeong Province. Many of the sites in Hoeryong are named after her.
You’d think that a country that’s trying to show the vigor of its geriatric oligarch wouldn’t dress him in funereal black. Don’t those North Koreans know that black is a slimming color?
Is that a metal rod propping you up, or are you just happy to see me?
The Daily Mail’s use of the loaded word “companion” to describe the woman with Kim Jong Il is probably baseless. Most likely, she’s just local talent — a hostess or tour guide selected to lead Kim around during his break from posing at a multitude of factories, fisheries, and other backdrops. Historically, Kim’s wives, mistresses, and pleasure squads have been kept away from cameras. Kim Jong Il probably lusts for many things nowadays — a legacy, regional hegemony, total control over his borders, culling what’s left of his “hostile” class, missiles that can reach Arkansas — but he looks very much like a man who has passed his sexual life expectancy.
Here’s hoping he’ll pass the physical one with all due haste, but none of KNCA’s pictures suggest that that’s imminent. By my eyes, he looks no better or worse than in previous photos. A caveat: these pictures were released yesterday, but KNCA didn’t say when they were taken, and North Korea has a history of giving misleading information about the dates photographs were taken. Comparing these to previous pictures of Kim Jong Il and noting that the North Koreans at least managed to get the background foliage right this time, I’d say they were taken recently, at least since last June. Last year, he was probably in much worse shape and significantly heavier. The current rumor, of course, is that he’s dying of pancreatic cancer.
One thing that these photos do seem to prove is that Kim Jong Il has been traveling widely in his kingdom. He’s rumored to have acquired a fear of flying after he was injured in a 1976 helicopter crash. He might have visited all of these places in his personal 16-car train, but given the horrible condition of the country’s railroads, a train probably couldn’t have moved very quickly. It’s more likely that Kim Jong Il took some long road trips, and just for context, it’s probably about a 400 drive from Pyongyang to Chongjin. Granted, Kim Jong Il doesn’t have to worry about traffic congestion or speed traps, but the condition of the highways is spotty, and 400 miles is the better part of a day’s drive anywhere.
Interestingly, many of the points on this itinerary are coastal cities, which may explain why North Korea was interested in buying Italian luxury yachts.
Other released photos show His Withering Majesty at the Songjin Steel Complex in North Hamgyeong Province, probably Chongjin, …
the Munchon Middle School …
the Wonsan Salt Manufactory …
the May 11 Smelting Works …
And the “Kim Chaek Daeheung marine products company,” which Reuters says is “at an undisclosed place,” but which I’ll go out on a long limb and place at the city of Kim Chaek, halfway up the coast from Wonsan to Najin.
This is not a complete list, if you include pictures KCNA released in August. All pictures below the jump are from KCNA, via Reuters, the AP, or AFP.
Related: The Chosun Ilbo has newly-released pictures of Kim Jong Il as a kid — a really, really mean-looking kid. Hat tip to GI Korea.