re: #22 aagcobb

Its like they think “1984” is a how-to manual.

1984—by way of being a fictional distillation of actual authoritarian use of information control—would actually be a pretty good how-to.

re: #37 erik_t

You’re more confident in the power structure than I am. Quite easy to blame a death on Imperialist Yankee Spies or whatever.

Maintaining an inviolable central figure…in this case, the Kim family line…is actual very important to mystique of governance and the larger propaganda narrative of North Korea. The concept that the populace is sold is that the Kims are so smart, charismatic, and astute that they keep the rest of the world from overrunning NK. Jong-Un being “touchable” by foreign powers would mar that concept.