Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Lonely No More In North Korea: The Day of the Sun and Religionists

And all this time you thought North Korea was a hermit nation with barely a whisper of international support voiced by the world community.

Obviously you and I have been the victims of a vast imperialistic propaganda plot. Don't think so? Just check out the news releases issued by the Korean Central News Agency of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, or DPRK for short.

There is quite a list of stories bragging about international support for Kim Jong-un and his crowd. Some of them are a bit dated, but hey, other than ratcheting up for nuclear war, it has been a slow news month north of the DMZ.

One release talks about the Poland-Korean Association. It's central committee is headed by someone named, Slaboy January Guzowski. Back in March he and the committee began planning to celebrate "The Day of the Sun," which is the term used to describe Kim Il-sung's birthday. News out of Poland, according to the KCNA, is that the association was setting up events, "including a seminar on exploits, celebration meeting, lecture (sic) and film shows on April 15 (The Day of the Sun) and other significant dates. Kim Il-sung is the first of the three Kims. He was born in 1912, or what the North Koreans refer to as Juche 1. This year is Juche 102 for those of you who have lost track.

In addition the KCNA reports that beyond Poland, Kim's birthday was being celebrated in countries such as Britain, Romania, Mongolia, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Uganda. The article was vague on where the galas were being held in those places, although in the UK the highly influential Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) was sponsoring the festivities.

Not to be outdone, international media outlets were noting the big day and praising Kim lavishly. The magazine, Hong Kong, China International Ties (sic) was mentioned as was the Russian publication, Khabarvoski Ekspres, Mexico's United Nacional, and Peru's Accion Nacionalista.

I will admit that I've never heard of Slaboy January Guzowski, or the Poland-Korea Association and to be honest I had a terrible time finding mention of him or it anywhere on the web, outside of KCNA news releases. However, I'm sure many fine people are involved and the party was a grand one.

I also have to tell you that I couldn't track down United Nacional, or The Hong Kong, China International Ties or even Times. I couldn't find a publication called Accion Nacionalista either, although there does seem to be a leftist political movement in Latin America falling under that name, so who knows. The Khabarvoski Ekspres is a weekly paper published in Khabarvosk, Russia. Khabarvosk's population in 2010 was 577,441 hearty souls. It is located 30 km from the Chinese border in far eastern Siberia.

Well you have to start someplace and these journalistic enterprises are probably as good as any.

The other tidbit of news available on the KCNA's site is that religionists in the people's democratic republic have blamed the United States and South Korea for escalating tensions on the peninsula. The story assures us that, "Not only Koreans and the world's progressives, but American religious leaders and other people with differing political views and religious beliefs have appreciated the undying feats by President Kim Il-sung and General Secretary Kim Jong-il." I missed that part of the sermon in church last week, but to be honest I only go for the wafer and wine, a lot of the rest of it just sort of goes in one ear and then out the other. In the same story we find that, "The public at home and abroad are increasing voices praising Marshal, Kim Jong-un."

Make no mistake, this was a heavy weight group of theologians meeting in Pyongyang. Included at the confab was the chairman of central committee of the Catholic Association of Korea, the secretary general of the central committee of the Christian Federation of Korea, the secretary general of the central guidance committee of the Chondron Association and the chief priest of the Songbul Temple. All these guys are members of the--yes, you guessed it--central committee of the Religious Believers Council of Korea. Obviously there will never be a shortage of central committees in the DPRK.

So there you have it straight from the horse's mouth. The place is rife with religionists and North Korea is no more alone than you and I are on this great globe. Friends of theirs abound from the old world to the new.

That's a good thing too. About three hours ago The Huffington Post reported that the DPRK's ambassador asked the Mongolian government for food aid.

It would appear you can't serve either undying feats or central committees for dinner.

It looks like some of the time life imitates literature. George Orwell didn't know how close to the truth his fiction would come. I doubt he'd be pleased if he did.


4-23-13

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