What is it with repressive, closed societies and the embalming of dead tyrants for public display?
The Guardian reports:
"Not satisfied with safeguarding Kim Jong-il's ideological legacy through the anointment of his youngest son, Kim Jong-un, North Korea also wants to lend the country's former leader an air of physical immortality.
On Thursday the state-run Korean Central News Agency said Kim Jong-il's body would be embalmed and laid in state next to his father – North Korea's founder, Kim Il-sung – in Pyongyang, the capital.
In addition, the regime is reportedly in the process of erecting "smiling portraits" of Kim and "towers to his immortality" across the country.
The party's central committee has named his birthday on 16 February the Day of the Shining Star, a title only slightly less reverential than the Day of the Sun that marks Kim Il-sung's birthday on 15 April."
It might be wise to consider, as part of our long term North Korean strategy, training a few thousand mental health professionals to speak Korean. When this regime finally collapses, they're going to need them.
