The Dear Leader does Pipelineistan

[Jefferson23]

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il, an old-style political poker player, gets Russia to back his game.

Pepe Escobar Last Modified: 05 Sep 2011 10:11


As much of the world - and news headlines - were transfixed by NATO’s “humanitarian” war in Libya, few noticed as a 69-year-old sporting a trademark Mao-style khaki jumpsuit and wearing sunglasses stepped out of a black armoured Mercedes in the back of beyond in Siberia.

Our character was, of course, the inimitable Dear Leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), Kim Jong-Il. Notoriously aviation-averse, Kim was rolling down the tundra in splendourous Old World style, in a carriage offered as a gift to his father, DPRK’s founder Kim Il-Sung, by none other than Joseph Stalin.

I had seen the carriage in North Korea last year - and it is indeed a smashing 1950s masterpiece; but now, according to the Interfax agency, “luxuriously restyled” and internet-friendly, with slim LCDs replacing old-school Sony Trinitrons.

The Dear Leader rolled into Sosnovy Bor (“Pine Forest”), a military base 50 km east of Buryatia’s capital Ulan-Ude, in eastern Siberia just across Lake Baikal, with a cracking smile on his face. He had just experienced, according to the AP’s dodgy translation, “a fun trip”; but we may be certain this Americanism was not exactly what he conveyed in Korean to his Russian hosts.

By contrast, when he left Sosnovy Bor after meeting Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, the Dear Leader must really have been in a swell mood.

remainder: http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/08/201183112377459935.html