All over North Korea, the people and even nature itself is mourning the loss of their Dear Leader Kim Jong Il. It is hard to know how sincere the expressions of grief that North Korean television has been showing actually are. It is possible that many North Koreans, living in an isolated country and knowing only what official propaganda has been telling them really do feel a great loss. If you hear that the Dear Leader is the most wonderful person in the world every waking moment, you might come to believe it. Then too, North Korea is a country in which the insufficient display of grief might well get a North Korean and his entire family sent to a prison camp.
With all that in mind, I can hardly blame the North Korean for their displays. I would be doing the same if I lived in North Korea. I would like to ask, however, what Jimmy Carter’s excuse is. This article from the Washington Times tells the story.
Former President Jimmy Carter has sent North Korea a message of condolence over the death of Kim Jong-il and wished “every success” to the man expected to take over as dictator, according to the communist country’s state-run news agency.
A dispatch from the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Mr. Carter sent the message to Kim Jong-un, Kim Jong-il’s son and heir apparent.
“In the message Jimmy Carter extended condolences to Kim Jong Un and the Korean people over the demise of leader Kim Jong Il. He wished Kim Jong Un every success as he assumes his new responsibility of leadership, looking forward to another visit to [North Korea] in the future,” the KCNA dispatch read.
When contacted by The Washington Times for comment, the Carter Center provided an email contact to a spokeswoman who is out of the office until the New Year.
North Korea is routinely labeled as one of the world’s most oppressive governments under an eccentric personality cult surrounding the Kim family. Harrowing reports from defectors describe North Korea as a dirt-poor nation filled with concentration camps and Communist propaganda. Kim Jong-il ran the reclusive country according to a “military first” policy since the mid-1990s, after a famine that may have killed as many as 2 million people.
Mr. Carter has visited North Korea twice — including a 1994 visit for talks on nuclear issues that led to a deal in which North Korea agreed to dismantle its nuclear-weapons program in exchange for oil deliveries and the construction of two nuclear reactors. That deal collapsed in 2002.
The former U.S. president also downplayed a 2010 North Korean attack on a South Korean island and disclosure of a uranium enrichment facility, saying the acts were merely “designed to remind the world that they deserve respect in negotiations that will shape their future.”
I honestly don’t know if Jimmy Carter is really that stupid or if he is simply evil. He has spent the bulk of his post-Presidential career befriending every anti-American dictator in the world while opposing our allies,especially Israel, which he considers to bear the entire blame for the lack of peace in the Middle East. He discredited himself with his awful presidency and I don’t know why anyone would care what he has to say on any subject.
Related articles
- North Korean State News: Jimmy Carter Expressed Condolences On The Death Of Kim Jong Il (businessinsider.com) This article implies that the story may not be true, considering that North Korean propaganda is inventive to say the least. If so, than I retract the post, but my opinion of Mr. Carter remains unchanged. Its the sort of thing I believe he would do.
- North Korea: Scenes of mourning for Kim Jong-il – BBC News (bbc.co.uk)
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