One of Kim Jong-il's shrines is an escalator at a grocery store.

Justice4243

The saddest escalator if the video is anything to go by.

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2011/1222/Dear-Escalator-Latest-Kim-Jong-il-shrine-is-an-escalator-video

"The North Korean government media released a still photo of what is believed to have been Kim Jong-il’s last public appearance before he died on Saturday. He's riding an escalator into a new supermarket in Pyongyang. The photo is undated, but the Korean Central News Agency reported separately that Kim had visited a supermarket on Dec. 15, 2011 – two days before his reported death."

My initial reaction was that the photo was faked. Since there seems to be many accusations of PhotoShoping the "dear leader" into photos when he's ill.

However, the people behind him aren't just some random North Koreans out celebrating "drab day". Apparently many are high ranking North Korean officials.

One things for sure, that's one lucky supermarket...you know...ignoring the part where it's in North Korea. 

Justice4243

Gah, grammar fail.

Can a mod move the "'s" in the title to beind the "il"?

Thank you kindly, Grammar fairy! 

Tnu1138

I hope Kim Jong-Il is sucking Lucifer's [censored] in hell.

Haven

And thus, I got to fulfill my nagging desire to edit something into grammar success.

Justice4243

All it took was the death of a dictator!

Princess Alice

The funniest part is that you don't have to be a mod to edit your own thread title.

Justice4243

Ah, so you're right. You just need to edit the OP.

Oh the practical joke possibilities... 

Justice4243

So, news articles aren't really paying attention to the implications of a shrine escalator. 

They're more using this opportunity to discuss the future of North Korea.

LAAAAAAAAAAAME!

Still, one thing that caught my eye was that Kim Jong-il apparently adhered to a three year mourning period when his father died and that his son might do the same before taking power.

This is more or less what Confucianism teaches, which I find odd given that religious rituals and rites are often given the boot once Communism is put in place.

Maybe some rituals are just too ingrained into the culture to do anything about...

Dammit...I need to find where that grocery store is  so people can talk about fonts and shit...

Justice4243

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/19/kim-jong-ils-public-appearance-photo_n_1157998.html

Another photo! We can see more signs in this one:

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post misidentified an escalator as an elevator. We regret the error.

HAHAHA, epic FAIL Huffington post! WHAT A LOSER, OH MY GOD!

Tnu1138

I always figured North Korea since the death of Il-Sung was closer to National Socialism then Communism.

Unknown

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Justice4243

FINALLY! Someone cares about the STORE!

The final photos of the late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il have surfaced on the web. They show him and his successor son, Kim Jong-un, on a “field guidance tour” to the first and only supermarket in North Korea.

...

In some photos he checks out what looks to be DVD players, toilet paper and other household items, offering some advice to the officials in charge. He appears to be wearing a gray coat, a hat and sunglasses.

...

South Korean newspaper Choson Ilbo presents an in-depth analysis of the other key officials trailing along. It notes the presence of Jon Il Chun, a high-school classmate of the deceased Supreme Leader and head of a special department responsible for the management of Kim’s personal finances. The newspaper says his presence may point to the fact that the supermarket’s profits were to go to Kim Jong-il’s own private coffers.

Chosun Ilbo also spots Ri Chol, the chairman of a North Korean committee responsible for attracting Chinese investment to the country. An unnamed South Korean Unification Ministry official says this means the supermarket was built with the help of Chinese investment.

The Gwangbok Street Department Store, built in 1991, was renovated earlier this year after Kim Jong-il’s visit to China, during which he toured a similar Western-style self-service supermarket in Yangzhou.

Scandalous! The grocery store was a gift from China so Kim Jong-il could reap all the sweet, sweet grocery money.

To bad you can't spend it, IN HELL!

Justice4243

Pictured: Twin special engineered grocerytologists work
feverishly to scientifically create products that will earn the late
dear leader the most money out of his impoverished nation.

Pictured the "Server station" of the grocery store.
Apparently no one knew what a deli was suppose to look like or what
was actually suppose to be in it, having
never actually SEEN a real grocery store before.

(technically, the photos are from the
Hama music information center on the same day, but I couldn't resist) 

http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/21/9616045-were-circumstances-of-kim-jong-ils-death-fabricated

Pictured: Kim and entourage discuss
the overabundance of color in the cafeteria, "How will
people be able to concentrate on eating their servers with all this distracting
color?" asks the late dear leader.  

http://www.digitalhen.co.uk/news/world-asia-16294154Pictured: Kin enquirers as to “who is to be
executed” for soiling his eyes with such lavish displays of pigment. 

King_Friday

I think SquiddleTron has a valid point with regards to his lacking a shadow in ALL the pictures.

Justice4243

I looked at them, and I might by that he just happens to be standing in a way that's not casting much of a shadow or reflection. None of the people have super apparent shadows or reflections except in the second photo and the one's with the servers...and maybe the flash is preventing his reflection somehow?

Still, lots of people seem to think these are fake in the sense they aren't just for two days before he died. There's no date with the photos, so it could have been long before he supposedly died of a heart attack.

Vociferous Masochist

Sorry to comment on something posted quite a while ago, but isn't Confucianism more of a philosophy than a religion?

Justice4243

Not really, or at least, not originally. It easily meets all the seven dimensions of religion, and the "Mandate of Heaven" is alluded too in Confucian scripture many times. 

Now, there are many aspects that can be taught without some of the metaphysical aspects, but one couldn't really look at the entirety of Confucian teaching and consider it a philosophy as opposed to a religion.

Vociferous Masochist

Ah. Thank you for the clarification!

Justice4243

No problem, happy to be of service.

Justice4243

This is a good and relatively short essay on Confucianism (which also mentions the mourning period),  on the off chance anyone wants to take a look.

Unknown

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