Kim Jong Un dead?

Kim Jong-un assassination rumours flood Twitter, Weibo

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Reuters
Friday, Feb. 10, 2012

By Lucas Shaw

at TheWrap

Did social media just prematurely kill off the leader of North Korea?

Rumours that Kim Jong-un, the country’s supreme leader, has been assassinated at the North Korean embassy in Beijing just months after he took power originated on Chinese microblogging service Weibo, and have now spread all over Twitter.

Others are reporting that Jong-un may be on the run rather than dead, but that some kind of coup is taking place.

The rumours remain unsubstantiated, and as [external] Adrian Chen at Gawker wrote, these types of reports crop up often given the furtive nature of North Korea’s government.

However, the reports are beginning to gather steam, especially now that a couple of American news outlets have reported on the rumours.

More rumors on [external] #Weibo dealing with North Korea, usual number of cars at NK embassy, Kim Jong-un assassination attempt, etc. Search 朝鲜

— Joe Xu (@JoeXu) [external] February 10, 2012

Seriously, this is crazy. Kim Jong-Un reported assassinated in Beijing and no one can seem to figure out if it’s true or not.

— Grace Suh (@Grace_Suh) [external] February 10, 2012

Kim Jong Un allegedly assassinated and Chinese military crossing the NK border. This is like a really good book…but like in real life.

— Brian Hiltwine (@bhiltwine) [external] February 10, 2012

Weibo is in many ways the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, and disseminates news at a rapid pace. People were tipped off that there was something happening that involved Jong-un, who succeeded his later father Kim Jong-il, because of the mass of cars parked outside of his residence.

One person on Weibo wrote (poor translation), ”confirmed reports, the top leaders in # Korea # # jinzhengen was assassinated # . Reportedly occurred at 2:45 on the 10th, gold and three fat was assassinated in their own villa, the Korean Embassy in Beijing has brought together more than 30 cars, the scale of more than Kim Jong-il’s death the situation.”

Yet many Twitter users are exercising caution, aware that news like this can spread without much to sustain it.

A sample of the dubious tweeters:

Kim Jong Un apparently assasinated in Beijing. Source: ‘Chinese Twitter’. What does that even mean? One Chinese person’s account? or @[external] China?

— Adam Thompson (@AdamThompson1) [external] February 10, 2012

Wait for confirmation on Kim Jong Un death rumors. Twitter is also reporting that “Jonas Brothers are the best band.”

— Matt Binder (@MattBinder) [external] February 10, 2012

So is Kim Jong-Un dead or not?

— Castor Jay (@castorjay) [external] February 10, 2012

This isn’t the first time that rumours of an assassination have swirled around the North Korean family.

Within hours of Kim Jong-il’s death in December, South Korean newspapers started speculating that instead of dying of a heart attack on a train, the Dear Leader had actually been murdered.


CLICK TO ENLARGE National Post

The Korea Times printed an interview with political scientist An Chan-Il, who said Kim Jong-il could have been killed by adversaries in the North Korean government who didn’t agree with his policies.

“After his third son Jong-un was named for a dynastic leadership succession, many military officers, especially those in their 50s, were dismissed,” Mr. And told the newspaper. “I think these people could have held deep resentment about Kim and North Korea’s next leader.

Theories about whether or not Kim Jong-il was even still alive have been thrown around for many years.

A professor from Japan once suggested in his book that Kim Jong-il had died in 2003 and the North Korean government had been using body doubles to keep up the illusion he was still living.

Unconfirmed reports of an assassination on Friday came on the heels of news that Kim Jong-un’s elder brother thinks North Korea will inevitably come undone as a result of bribery and corruption.

Emails written by Kim Jong-nam, Kim Jong-un’s half brother, and published on Friday, said corruption was so rampant that the country’s political system would not survive.

“The amount of bribery merchants have to offer to high-level officials in order to survive keeps rising,” Jong-nam told Japanese journalist Yoji Gomi by email.


The body of North Korean leader Kim Jong-ill lies in state in a glass coffin at the Kumsusan Memorial Palace in Pyongyang on Dec. 20, 2011. AFP / Getty Images

“Such a corrupt system will inevitably collapse. It reminds me of the situation right before the USSR collapsed,” he added in a message dated December 7.

The comments were published in Bungeishunju magazine and come just weeks after Gomi released a book of email exchanges and interviews with Jong-nam, who he first met in Beijing in 2004.

“North Korean youngsters are influenced by the winds of South Korean culture and capitalism and live their own lives… seeking to dodge strict control. So I advised Jong-un to offer a more abundant life through reform and opening,” he said in an August 5 email.


This undated picture from the homepage of Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) released by Yonhap news agency in Seoul on December 19, 2011 shows North Koreans citizens in an undisclosed location mourning after the death of their leader. AFP / Getty Images files

Jong-nam also said his younger brother was not really old enough to become leader of North Korea.

“I can’t see on the kid’s face (Jong-Un) any sense of duty or seriousness as the next leader of such a complicated country as North Korea, and any deep thoughts on the future of country,” he said, in an email sent on November 4.

In his commentary on the emails, Gomi said Jong-nam’s criticism of the North became even harsher after the bombing of Yeonpyeong island in November 2010, which killed four South Koreans.

In the email sent on November 27, four days after the shelling attack, Jong-nam said, “The North’s military carried out the attack to prove the reason of their existence and their status and to legitimize the country’s nuclear weapons programme.”

With files from AFP and Allison Cross, National Post

Posted in: News Tags: World, Kim Jong-il, Kim Jong-un, North Korea, Twitter, Weibo