Kim Jong-Il Really Is Ill: Plus, The Norks Have A Nifty New Missile Base

When Kim Jong-Il failed to appear for the 60th anniversary of the establishment
of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, it gave impetus to the rumors
that he was ill.

Now, the North Koreans have confirmed
that Kim had a stroke. He probably underwent surgery.

That same news article quoted a Nork diplomat employing the usual communist
veracity as saying that reports about Kim are

"worthless" and a "conspiracy plot," adding that
Western media "have reported falsehoods before"

meaning of course that everything the West has reported thus far is most likely
true and that Kim’s condition is far more serious than they are letting on.

This comes on the heels of a serious debate about whether Kim Jong-Il is actually
alive at all. Toshimitsu Shigemura of Waseda University in Japan has posited
that Kim died in 2003, and that body doubles have taken his place ever since.
This would sound like a ridiculous theory about anyone else; but we are talking
here about North Korea, a hermit kingdom of potemkin villages, paranoia and
intense secrecy.

Meanwhile, more good news:

WASHINGTON
- North Korea has quietly built a long-range missile base that is larger and
more capable than an older and well-known launch pad for intercontinental ballistic
missiles, according to independent analysts relying on new satellite images
of the site and other data. Analysts provided images of the previously secret
site to The Associated Press.

Construction on the site on North Korea’s west coast began at least eight years
ago, according to Joseph S. Bermudez, Jr., senior analyst with Jane’s Information
Group, and Tim Brown with Talent-keyhole.com, a private satellite imagery analysis
company. Bermudez first located the site in early spring and they have tracked
its construction using commercial and unclassified satellite imagery.

"The primary purpose of the facility is to test," Bermudez told The
Associated Press in an interview last week. A base capable of a long-range test
could obviously be used in wartime to launch a missile that carried a warhead.

Crossposted from Ken McCracken