Word: kim
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Perhaps it was nothing more than wishful thinking by his many enemies, but the wildest rumor to sweep through Asian financial markets last week was that Kim Jong Il, North Korea's despotic leader, was shot in the head by his brother-in-law's son during a palace coup. Quickly dismissed as pure fantasy, the rumor of Kim's demise was merely the most extreme example of recent speculation regarding the fate of Kim's Stalinist regime...
Official portraits of North Korea's ruler, Kim Jong Il, and his late father, Kim Il Sung, are considered so sacred that a North Korean caught in a fire is expected to save them before his own children. So experts on the secretive state were puzzled by reports last week that portraits of the younger Kim had been disappearing from public buildings. A Tokyo-based news agency that monitors North Korean media also reported that the national wire service had dropped the usual Dear Leader honorific it used to refer to Kim. Were these signs that his absolute power...
...Probably not. With no apparent unrest in the North, it seems more likely that Kim is trying to dial back his cult of personality, possibly to present himself as a more normal leader internationally. "He is confident in his power," says Kim Kwang In, a North Korea specialist at Seoul's Chosun Ilbo newspaper. "He doesn't need idolatry." But if this was a show of self-abnegation, it was a modest one. North Korea uses more than 1,000 flattering designations for its leader, including Guardian Deity of the Planet and Sun of the 21st Century. Meanwhile, Dear Leader...
...absence of Kim's portrait from the People's Palace of Culture in Pyongyang was confirmed last week by before-and-after photos in a South Korean newspaper. And Stanislav Varivoda, a Russian correspondent based in the capital, says Kim's image was also missing from the city's Mansudae Assembly Hall. But Varivoda told TIME he could find no evidence that other portraits were missing. Meanwhile, an aid worker in Pyongyang said he saw nothing amiss in the dozen buildings he visited last week. However, a source close to South Korean intelligence told TIME that some portraits...
...think we just knew what to expect this time,” co-captain Kim Gould said. “And it was a lot more difficult to play in their place, because it was their senior night and they had such a large crowd. [At Union] there wasn’t really anyone there, and it was much more about creating your own momentum...