Monster Island (actually a peninsula)*

Pearls of witticism from 'Bo the Blogger: Kushibo's Korea blog... Kushibo-e Kibun... Now with Less kimchi, more nunchi. Random thoughts and commentary (and indiscernibly opaque humor) about selected social, political, economic, and health-related issues of the day affecting "foreans," Koreans, Korea and East Asia, along with the US, especially Hawaii, Orange County and the rest of California, plus anything else that is deemed worthy of discussion. Forza Corea!

Saturday, February 18, 2012

[UPDATED] Kim Jong-nam cut off?

[source]

If what The Telegraph is saying is true, someone in Pyongyang may be retaliating for Kim Jong-un's older half brother Kim Jong-nam shooting his mouth off about the Prodigious Progeny not being ready for prime time:

Well-known playboy and occasional critic of his father’s regime, Kim Jong-nam has been kicked out of luxury hotel in the Chinese gambling hub of Macau, according to a Russian newspaper.

The Arguments and Facts weekly claimed Jong-nam ran up a bill of £9,500 but was unable to pay because his credit card had been cancelled.

Jong-nam’s decadent lifestyle saw him ditched as the heir-apparent in favour of his younger half-brother Kim Jong-un.

“He gave us his Visa Gold card but it ended up having no money on the account,” the mass-circulated paper quoted an unnamed source at the hotel as saying.

The management of the five-star Grand Lapa Hotel, run by the Mandarin Oriental chain, then expelled the 40-year-old from his 17th-floor room, the paper said.

If he really has fallen out of favor, that's a serious problem for the oldest son of the Dearly Departed Leader. Does that mean he's vulnerable to be taken out physically? If he (literally) dodges that bullet, will he have to get a job? Just what can this guy do for gainful employment?

Maybe he can team up with Hines Ward.

UPDATE 1:
Joshua at One Free Korea is suggesting that maybe the CIA might be willing to offer KJN a lavish life in Vegas in exchange for information on the Norkremlin.

UPDATE 2:
The Korea Times is suggesting that Kim Jong-nam might defect to South Korea if he is completely cut off. I'm not sure how secure that would make him feel, given the high-profile assassination of Ri Hanyŏng (리한영), a nephew of Kim Jong-il's mistress whose own mother raised Kim Jong-nam, after North Korea's Number-Two Hwang Jang-yŏp defected in the mid-1990s, as well as the attempt in 2010 to kill Hwang himself.

Come to think of it, given that Kim Jong-nam himself grew up with Ri Hanyŏng, maybe this has steeled him for what might come, though on the other hand it might give him pause regarding defecting.

...

1 comment:

RoboseyoSaturday, February 18, 2012 6:39:00 PM
If he's cut off financially, I hope this means he needs to start start looking for a paycheck... and trading on his inside knowledge of North Korea by publishing books and books about North Korea and the royal family.
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Ask Kushibo.

My Google/Blogspot data shows that a lot of the 2 million people who have landed on my site (yes, that's the real number) are looking for cultural information on Korea (e.g., “When did Syngman Rhee die?” “What did the Indians bring to the first Chusŏk?’ etc., etc.), as well as practical or historical stuff.

That got me thinking that, hey, I have a master’s degree in Korean studies and a minor in Japanese studies, I’ve lived in Seoul far longer than most foreans my age (whether they're kyopo or non-kyopo), I teach introductory courses on Korea and its cultural trappings and history, so why not offer a free service where I attempt to answer people’s questions, point them in the direction of where they can get them answered, and/or offer my regulars (that’s you!) a chance to take a stab at some of this stuff, too.

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九十五大怪獣란? 쿠시보의 몬스터 아일랜드란?

Pearls of witticism from 'Bo the Blogger: Kushibo's Korea blog... Kushibo-e Kibun...
Now with Less kimchi, more nunchi. Random thoughts and commentary (and indiscernibly opaque humor) about selected social, political, economic, and health-related issues of the day affecting "foreans" ("foreigners" in Korea be they kyopo or non-kyopo), Koreans, Korea and East Asia, along with the US, especially Hawaii, Orange County, and the rest of California, plus anything else that is deemed worthy of discussion. Forza Corea!

* Monster Island (actually a peninsula)

The name of this blog comes from a line in "Lisa on Ice," a beloved episode of The Simpsons, perhaps my all-time favorite television show (even though for several seasons there, it really did suck). Lisa is imagining being sworn in as president, but at the last minute, it is discovered that she failed P.E. (physical education) and she is thus "sentenced to a lifetime of horror" on Monster Island. "Don't worry," the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court confides in her, "It's just a name."

Fast forward to Lisa and other prisoners running in panic through a tropical jungle, chased by Godzilla-like creatures, including a monster turtle and a monster firefly.

"He said it was just a name!" Lisa screams to the man next to her. While he, too, runs for his life, the unidentified man calmly says, "What he meant is that Monster Island is actually a peninsula."

Anyway, I thought in some ways that punchline summed up modern-day Korea in a nutshell. For many people—foreigners and Koreans—the ups and downs and everyday travails of the Republic of Korea make it as precarious as a Monster Island would be (and with the DMZ being the only land border, it really is like an island). But it actually is a peninsula. Okay, it made sense in my head.

So as you can see, despite the hits I get from people looking for Japanese tentacle porn, it has nothing to do with anything salacious as that.