13 February 2018

Note from Norm: The Wide Relaxed Smile of Evil

The sister of North Korea’s Dictator Kim Jong Un, Kim Yo Jong, received a warm welcome from many in the Western Media.

Otto Warmbier was beaten to death by her brother’s government.

CNN crowed that “Kim Jong Un’s sister is stealing the show at the Winter Olympics.”

Meanwhile, he was continuing the steal the freedom, liberty and human dignity of 25 million people under the foot of his regime.

Anna Fifield of the Washington Post, in an article extolling Kim Jon Un’s sisters “…wide, relaxed smile…” postulates that “If North Korea sees this as a charm offensive, it could hardly have picked a better ambassador.”

From her being described as “The Ivanka Trump of North Korea…” who “…captivates people in the South.” to being “Sweet but with a tomboy streak” and a “…political princess” many in the western media went gaga over the sister of a murderous and villainous dictator.

The sister of the same dictator who has threated “…the final doom of the US.” was the perfect bait for a media looking to be hooked by a storyline that “Gee, if only Donald Trump wasn’t our President we could really get along with that North Korean government!”

Well, before we start inviting Kim Yo Jong for a rollicking round of Carpool Karaoke on The Late Late Show with James Corden or her brother to square off with Jimmy Fallon for an epic lip sync battle on The Tonight Show let’s help the world’s breathless media gain some perspective.

“North Korea remains one of the most repressive authoritarian states in the world, ruled for seven decades by the Kim family and the Worker’s Party of Korea. During his fifth year in power, Kim Jong-Un continued to generate fearful obedience by using public executions, arbitrary detention, and forced labor; tightening travel restrictions to prevent North Koreans from escaping and seeking refuge overseas; and systematically persecuting those with religious contacts inside and outside the country.”

Those are the opening words from the 2017 World Report of Human Rights Watch describing North Korea.

https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2017/country-chapters/north-korea

Trust me, that is only the beginning of their description of the regime of the of the brother of the “Sweet but with a tomboy streak” Kim Yo Jong.

Human Rights Watch points to a 2014 United Nations Commission of Inquiry report about North Korea’s human rights record that outlines a “… systematic, widespread, and gross human rights violations committed by the government included murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape, forced abortion, and other sexual violence, and constituted crimes against humanity.”

Of course, with her “…wide, relaxed smile…” Kim Yo Jong probably couldn’t be bothered to address the fact that her brother’s government “…practices collective punishment for alleged anti-state offenses, effectively enslaving hundreds of thousands of citizens, including children, in prison camps and other detention facilities. Detainees face deplorable conditions, sexual coercion and abuse, beatings and torture by guards, and forced labor in dangerous and sometimes deadly conditions.”

But, “Norm,” you ask, “Shouldn’t we put aside our differences for the sake of the Olympics and celebrate the gesture of grace and celebration that Kim Yo Jong has brought to the games?”

No, I answer, we should not.

From my perspective you either acknowledge a nation and its leaders are vile, corrupt, murderous and dangerous to its own people and a threat to the world – based on the facts.

Or, you succumb to the fawning selective outrage of a media that cannot be bothered to point out that while “Kim Jon Un’s sister is stealing the show at the Winter Olympics” her brother’s government, of which she is no stranger, is producing nuclear weapons to destroy millions of people who are watching the Olympics.

I reject the faux refinement of a tyrant government that has been spit shined and whitewashed better than a Hollywood movie.

All Kim Yo Jong had to do was to avoid poisoning anybody during her time at the Olympics – something her brother couldn’t avoid having done to their own brother in a crowded Kuala Lumpu airport.

On that measure, her trip should be viewed as an enormous success!

The U.S. Media continues to be increasingly misinformed, and malinformed in their reporting of the news.

It is ever more incumbent upon citizens of a democracy to push back against narratives that are not only insulting to 25 million people living under the boot heel of a dictator, but dishonors the powerful freedom accorded to the press under the 1st Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America.

Kim Jong Un provides no freedom of the press.

He provides nothing to anybody in his country who doesn’t live to serve him.

His sister may have had a rollicking good time at the Olympics with an entourage of adoring fans in the western media, but for the rest of the people of North Korea all they got was another day of nothing.

Another day of the western media being hornswoggled by a “..political princess…” on a “…charm offensive…” who “…captivates…” people.

Back at home her brother is captivating people, too – his own.

In North Korea the Emperor has clothes – his people do not.

They do not have food.  Liberty.  Or Human Rights.

Millions of North Koreans live, and many die, with this reality every single day.

For 17 months Otto Warmbier endured what life—and death– is really like in North Korea.

His murder alone should shame those in our nation’s media who celebrate the “…wide, relaxed smile” of the evil regime of Kim Jong Un.