Rumor: Kim Jong Un Assassinated

Fri Feb 10, 2012 6:29 pm » by **Domdabears**

According to Weibo a Chinese micro blogging site the newly named leader of North Korea Kim Jong Un was shot and killed at his home by an assassin who was then shot by a bodyguard. The rumor goes on to report a large number of cars at the North Korean Embassy in China. Another element of the rumor says Kim Jong Un was killed in China.

However February 16th would have been Kim Jong Il’s 70th birthday so the increased number of cars at the North Korean embassy maybe related to some sort of ceremony.

North Korea is a country in practically total isolation so confirming news out of the country is difficult.

More as it becomes available…

http://centintel.com/?p=359

Fri Feb 10, 2012 6:43 pm » by **Domdabears**

I'm looking, but haven't found any other reports on this.

:headscratch:

Fri Feb 10, 2012 6:55 pm » by **Domdabears**

All the other "conspiracy" forums are talking about the same thing too.

Fri Feb 10, 2012 7:03 pm » by **Lahlaos**

Ive been looking around too, definitely nothing in mainstream.

Maybe it is what it is, just a rumor?
But if it was true, what ramifications would their be? U.S intervention??

Fri Feb 10, 2012 7:05 pm » by **Domdabears**

lahlaos wrote:Ive been looking around too, definitely nothing in mainstream.

Maybe it is what it is, just a rumor?
But if it was true, what ramifications would their be? U.S intervention??

Yeah, I still don't know either.

And or other places with the word "United" in them. :flop:

Fri Feb 10, 2012 7:15 pm » by **Mrmcnuggets**

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505245_162- ... in-nkorea/

some mainstream news, 2 hours fresh.

(AP) PAJU, South Korea — Eight South Korean lawmakers made a high-profile visit Friday to a modern factory park that sits just across the world's most heavily armed border and represents the last major cooperative initiative between the two rival Koreas.

The 123 South Korean companies operating at the jointly run industrial park in the North Korean border city of Kaesong are producing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of products and adding workers despite political animosity that keeps the two governments from formally speaking to each other.

North Korea allowed one South Korean legislator to visit Kaesong last year, but Friday's trip is the highest-profile visit to the factory by South Koreans since North Koreans observed an 11-day mourning period for late leader Kim Jong Il, who died in December, and declared his son, Kim Jong Un, supreme commander of the 1.2 million-strong military.

The lawmakers didn't meet with North Korean officials, Rep. Park Joo-sun of the opposition Democratic United Party said after returning from Kaesong. The delegation toured South Korean-built infrastructure and several factories in the 1.3-square-mile (3.3-square-kilometer) industrial zone and exchanged casual greetings with North Korean workers, Park said. The lawmakers weren't accompanied by reporters.

Park said South Korean workers complained to the delegation about Seoul's restriction on bringing in new heavy equipment. Seoul has maintained the restriction since May 2010, when it accused the North of torpedoing a South Korean warship and killing 46 sailors. Pyongyang denies any role in the sinking.

Seoul, which does not allow its citizens to visit the North without approval, has also restricted the number of South Koreans allowed to live and work at the plant since violence in 2010 plunged ties between the Koreas to a low point. The Korean peninsula is in a technical state of war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce.

Still, despite the tension, the Kaesong factory zone has managed to grow. The South Korean government says an increasing number of companies are interested in the nearby, cheap labor source that Kaesong represents.

The Unification Ministry in Seoul said this week that the South Korean companies operating in the zone now employ more than 50,000 North Korean workers, a 110 percent jump from four years earlier, when relations between the Koreas started deteriorating.

Last year, the factory park produced $400 million worth of electronic goods, kitchenware, clothes, shoes, food and other labor-intensive products, according to the ministry, which handles exchanges with North Korea. That's a 60 percent increase from 2008, when conservative President Lee Myung-bak took power in South Korea with a tough policy that cut off no-strings-attached aid for North Korea, linking assistance to progress on nuclear disarmament demands.

North Korea recently said inter-Korean talks are possible, but only if South Korea answers a long list of preconditions. That marks a step back from an earlier vow by North Korea to shun the Lee government as a dialogue partner.

South Korea this week offered talks with Pyongyang on curbing pests near a historic site in North Korea. Pyongyang has yet to formally respond.

The Kaesong industrial complex opened in 2004, six years after the two Koreas began a cross-border tour project at a resort on Diamond Mountain on the North's east coast. Those tours were suspended after a South Korean tourist was shot and killed by a North Korean guard in 2008. That leaves the Kaesong venture as the last remaining major symbol of reconciliation.

With relations so frigid between the countries, the fact that Pyongyang gave consent to Friday's visit by South Korean lawmakers is meaningful, said Ryoo Kihl-jae, a professor at Seoul's University of North Korean Studies.

The workers — more than 70 percent of whom are female, according to the ministry — receive a steady source of income. Unification Ministry officials said their monthly wages are around $110; about half of that goes to North Korean authorities, while the workers get the rest in North Korean currency or coupons.

http://gawker.com/5884033/chinese-twitt ... in-beijing
also under google news 6 minutes ago

Chinese Twitter Says Kim Jong-Un Was Assassinated This Morning In Beijing
The Chinese micro-blogging service Weibo has exploded with rumors that new North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un was assassinated today at the North Korean embassy in Beijing. Twitter death rumors are totally cross-cultural.

Here's one version of the rumor, cleaned up from the crappy Google translation:

According to reliable sources, North Korean leader [Kim Jong-Un was killed] in Beijing in February 10 2012, at 2 o'clock and 45 minutes. Unknown persons broke into his residence shot and were subsequently shot and killed by the bodyguard.

Official Internet Rule: Any (Chinese) Twitter post that begins with "according to reliable source" is almost certainly fake. But this hasn't stopped Chinese netizens from speculating that the killing was a military coup, and posting blurry pictures purporting to show an unusual number of vehicles parked at the North Korean embassy. ChinaSMACK staff writer Joe Xu suggests reports of large number of cars at the embassy may have sparked the rumor. "Rumors like this pop up every other week," he writes on Twitter.

We will only know Kim Jong-Un's fate for sure when a new picture of him looking at things emerges.

Fri Feb 10, 2012 7:38 pm » by **Domdabears**

Kim Jong-un's brother did predict his sibling wouldn't last long.

Sat Feb 11, 2012 1:49 am » by **FullDisclosure**

The biggest hole I see in the story is where he was reported to be killed inside his residence in China??? Thought he resided in North Korea....

These are the only reputable non-conspiracy site links I found so far and they only discuss the "rumor"
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16993394

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/02/ ... m-jong-un/

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/ ... wtMostRead

Sat Feb 11, 2012 3:32 am » by **Will69ease**

US Officials Say Kim Jong Un Assassination Rumors Untrue

The Internet was abuzz with rumors today that North Korea’s newly installed leader, Kim Jong Un, was assassinated during a trip to Beijing, but U.S. officials are debunking the reports as not true.

Several U.S. officials contacted by ABC News said there was no validity to the reports that originated on a Chinese social media site and soon spread to Twitter.

“There’s nothing to this, ” said one U.S. official, who added that there were no indications that the reports were true.

Another U.S. official said, “Our experts are monitoring the situation and we see no abnormal activity on the [Korean] peninsula and nothing that credits that tweet as accurate.”

North Korean troop movements on the North Korean side of the border are often an indicator that the country’s leadership is preparing for tense situations, much as what happened when Kim Jong Un assumed power late last year.

Sina Weibo, a Chinese equivalent of Twitter, saw a spike in traffic repeating uncorroborated reports that Kim had been assassinated during a visit to Beijing.

The story gained traction on Twitter with re-tweets of what appeared to be confirmation of the reports by two BBC Twitter accounts. However, a BBC Web article reported those twitter handles were fakes and have since been closed.

Today’s Internet rumors were not the first time that Kim has been the focus of social media rumors. In early January, postings to Sina Weibo began to appear claiming that Kim had been overthrown in a military coup. Since then, the Chinese government has been eliminating those postings from the site. The same is happening with today’s rumors on the social media site.

There were also rumors that Kim Jong Un had ordered the assassination of his half-brother, Kim Jong Nam, the eldest of Kim Jong Il’s children, who was passed over as his successor.
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/20 ... rs-untrue/

Sat Feb 11, 2012 5:36 am » by **Septeloid**

twitter is buzzing with this

Rumors that Kim Jong-un, the country’s supreme leader, has been assassinated just months after he took power originated on Chinese microblogging service Weibo and have now spread all over Twitter.

Others are reporting that Jong-un, believed to be 28 years old, may be on the run rather than dead, but both reports claim that some kind of coup is taking place.

One person on Weibo wrote (loose translation): "north korea's biggest leader kim jung un, this morning in beijing time 2:45 am, had his residence broken into and was assassinated by unidentified people, who were shot dead by his bodyguards in korea's embassy in beijing, vehicles are rapidly increasing in number, and have surpassed 30 of them, this sort of battle formation hasn't been seen in over two years. please verify this."

The rumors remain unsubstantiated. However, the reports are beginning to attract a great deal of attention, especially now that a couple of American news outlets including the Atlantic Wire have reported on them.

Weibo is in many ways the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, and disseminates news at a rapid pace. People were tipped off that there was something happening that involved Jong-Un, who succeeded his late father Kim Jong-Il, because of the mass of cars parked outside of his resident.

EDIT:
Looks like it's all hogwash.
CNN and Sky are quoting US officials as saying it is nothing more than a party at the Beijing embassy.

http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/02/10 ... n-rumours/

http://www.theatlantic.com/internationa ... ie/252938/