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NK leader rushes to defense command after Gadhafi`s death

NK leader rushes to defense command after Gadhafi`s death

Posted October. 26, 2011 07:22,   

한국어

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il made a surprise visit to his defense command with his youngest son and heir apparent Kim Jong Un immediately after the death of Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

By visiting the unit responsible for guarding senior officials and suppressing anti-government revolts, Kim Jong Il apparently wanted to demonstrate the solidness of his regime and prevent his people from getting agitated.

The North’s Korea Central News Agency reported on Saturday, two days after Gadhafi’s death, “Chairman Kim visited the command of the 985th unit of the Korea People’s Army.”

Korea Central TV in Pyongyang reported again Tuesday, “Chairman Kim paid the visit without sending advance notice.”

Kim Jong Il was accompanied by most of his close aides, including his heir apparent Kim Jong Un, his brother-in-law Jang Sung Taek, who is administrative chief of the North Korean Workers’ Party, and Kim Kyung Ok, first deputy head of the party’s organizational leadership. The 985th unit is one of the titles of external units under the Guard Command, and Kim Jong Il’s delegation was received by North Korean People’s Army Gen. Yun Jong Rin.

The news agency reported, “Recalling the unforgettable day when Chairman Kim visited the unit along with his father and Dear Leader (Kim Il Sung) in March 1966, he lauded the unit for being fully prepared to carry out whatever combat mission is given.”

On the unit`s mood, the report said, "The unit was full of strong commitment to protect our Dear Leader to the death, and thus complete the revolutionary mission of juche (self-reliance) by continuing to fight to the last moment and until the last man survives and last rifle remains."

Kim Jong Il visited the kitchen at the unit in person and inspected whether main and supplementary food ingredients were adequately supplied.

Whenever problems arose with the safety of foreign dictators, North Korea has sought internal consolidation. Jeong Yeong-tae, researcher at the South Korean Institute of National Unification, said, “Kim’s publicized visit to the 985th unit timed with (Gadhafi`s death) was part of propaganda and instigation designed to double-check the mental preparedness of the guard command, and enable North Koreans to confirm the perfect state of his defense.”

According to North Korean defectors, when Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu was executed in 1989, Chairman Kim visited the State Security Department and said, “I urge you to not taste a bitter flavor tomorrow by missing this moment,” and demanded a “pledge of loyalty" from senior military officers.

After Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was hanged in 2008, Democratic Korea, the official newspaper of the North’s Cabinet, merely carried a brief and “instructed” senior government officials to “thoroughly block agitation of the people” 18 days after the incident.



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