Kim Jong-il - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. "Kim Jong-il, also written as Kim Jong Il, birth name Yuri Irsenovich Kim (according to Soviet records)[2][3][4][5] (born 16 February 1941 (Soviet records) or 16 February 1942 (North Korean records) – 17 December 2011[6]), was the Supreme Leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea)."

Kim Jong-il - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Kim Jong-il, also written as Kim Jong Il, birth name Yuri Irsenovich Kim (according to Soviet records)^[2][3][4][5] (born 16 February 1941 (Soviet records) or 16 February 1942 (North Korean records) – 17 December 2011^[6]), was the Supreme Leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea)."


"Personality

The neutrality of this article is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved. (July 2010)

Like his father, Kim had a fear of flying,^[107] and always traveled by private armored train for state visits to Russia and China. The BBCreported that Konstantin Pulikovsky, a Russian emissary who traveled with Kim across Russia by train, told reporters that Kim had livelobsters air-lifted to the train every day.^[108]

Kim was said to be a huge film fan, owning a collection of more than 20,000 video tapes and DVDs.^[109] His reported favorite movie franchises included Friday the 13th, Rambo, Godzilla, and Hong Kong action cinema,^[110] and any movie starring Elizabeth Taylor.^[111] He was the author of the book On the Art of the Cinema. In 1978, on Kim's orders, South Korean film director Shin Sang-ok and his actress wife Choi Eun-hee were kidnapped in order to build a North Korean film industry.^[112] In 2006 he was involved in the production of the Juche-based movie Diary of a Girl Student – depicting the life of a girl whose parents are scientists – with a KCNA news report stating that Kim "improved its script and guided its production".^[113]

Although Kim enjoyed many foreign forms of entertainment, according to former bodyguard Lee Young Kuk, he refused to consume any food or drink not produced in North Korea, with the exception of wine from France.^[114] His former chef Kenji Fujimoto, however, has stated that Kim has sometimes sent him around the world to purchase a variety of foreign delicacies.^[115]

Kim reportedly enjoyed basketball. Former United States Secretary of State Madeleine Albright ended her summit with Kim by presenting him with a basketball signed by NBA legend Michael Jordan.^[116] Also an apparent golfer, North Korean state media reports that Kim routinely shot three or four holes-in-one per round.^[117] His official biography also claims that Kim composed six operas and enjoys staging elaborate musicals.^[118] Kim also referred to himself as an Internet expert.^[119]

US Special Envoy for the Korean Peace Talks, Charles Kartman, who was involved in the 2000 Madeleine Albright summit with Kim, characterised Kim Jong-il as a reasonable man in negotiations, to the point, but with a sense of humor and personally attentive to the people he was hosting.^[120] However, psychological evaluations conclude that Kim Jong-il's antisocial features, such as his fearlessness in the face of sanctions and punishment, serve to make negotiations extraordinarily difficult.^[121]

The field of psychology has long been fascinated with the personality assessment of dictators, a notion that resulted in an extensive personality evaluation of Kim Jong-il. The report, compiled by Frederick L. Coolidge and Daniel L. Segal (with the assistance of a South Korean psychiatrist considered an expert on Kim Jong-il's behavior), concluded that the “big six” group of personality disorders shared by dictators Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Saddam Hussein (sadistic, paranoid, antisocial, narcissistic, schizoid and schizotypal) were also shared by Kim Jong-il—coinciding primarily with the profile of Saddam Hussein.^[121] The evaluation also finds that Kim Jong-il appeared to pride himself on North Korea's independence, despite the extreme hardships it appears to place on the North Korean people—an attribute appearing to emanate from his antisocial personality pattern.^[121] This notion also encourages other cognitive issues, such as self-deception, as subsidiary components to Kim Jong-il's personality. Many of the stories about Kim Jong Il's eccentricities and decadent life-style are exaggerated, possibly circulated by South Korean intelligence to discredit the Northern regime.^[122] Defectors claim that Kim has 17 different palaces and residences all over North Korea, including a private resort near Baekdu Mountain, a seaside lodge in the city of Wonsan, and a palace complex northeast of Pyongyang surrounded with multiple fence lines, bunkers and anti-aircraft batteries.^[123]

Finances

According to the Sunday Telegraph, Kim had US$4 billion on deposit in European banks in case he ever needed to flee North Korea. TheSunday Telegraph reported that most of the money was in banks in Luxembourg.^[124]"

Kim Jong-il 김정일 金正日
Supreme Leader of North Korea
In office 8 July 1994 – 17 December 2011[1]
President	Kim Yong-nam
Premier	Hong Song-nam Pak Pong-ju Kim Yong-il Choe Yong-rim
Preceded by	Kim Il-sung
Succeeded by	TBD
Chairman of the National Defence Commission of North Korea
In office 9 April 1993 – 17 December 2011
Deputy	Jo Myong-rok
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	TBD
Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army
In office 24 December 1991 – 17 December 2011
Preceded by	Kim Il-sung
Succeeded by	TBD
General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea
In office 8 October 1997 – 17 December 2011
Preceded by	Kim Il-sung
Succeeded by	TBD
Chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Worker's Party of Korea
In office 8 October 1997 – 17 December 2011
Preceded by	Kim Il-sung
Succeeded by	TBD
Personal details
Born	Yuri Irsenovich Kim 16 February 1941 Vyatskoye, Soviet Union(Soviet records) 16 February 1942 Baekdu Mountain, Japanese Korea (North Korean records)
Died	19 December 2011 (aged 69)
Political party	Workers' Party of Korea
Spouse(s)	Kim Young-sook Song Hye-rim Ko Young-hee Kim Ok
Children	Kim Sul-song Kim Jong-nam Kim Jong-chul Kim Jong-un
Alma mater	Kim Il-sung University University of Malta[citation needed]
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	North Korea
Service/branch	Korean People's Army
Years of service	1991–2011
Rank	Wonsu
Commands	Supreme Commander

Kim Jong-il
Chosŏn'gŭl	김정일
Hancha	金正日
McCune–Reischauer	Kim Chŏngil
Revised Romanization	Gim Jeong(-)il

http://dorincard.blogspot.com/search?q=dprk

^============

^{See some DPRK stamps on MAXICARDS from WWF.}

How about receiving a post card from North Korea? | Jean-Luc Nguyen around the world blog

How about receiving a post card from North Korea? | Jean-Luc Nguyen around the world blog

No, I don't want millions of people to ask Jean-Luc for a postcard from North Korea.
I want to raise awareness about real travel and virtual travel, as a way for all of us to communicate, somehow, with various people from around the world.


Even blogging is a way to communicate and "travel".
I  communicate, sometimes within the same day, with partners, friends and strangers from 6 continents -  I'm still working on adding Antarctica.
:)


My previous blogpost about DPR KOREA = NORTH KOREA:

http://dorincard.blogspot.com/search?q=dprk

=============

About Jean-Luc Nguyen:


"Jean-Luc was born in France and grew up in Paris.

He studied Information Technology at EPITECH, one of the most renowned IT schools in France. He worked for several corporate atmospheres during his schooling, ranging from SOHO to international law firms, principally as a consultant or a system and network engineer. His missions involved different technical skills, such as web and software programming, database architecture and insuring network and system reliability as well as security. These experiences required a lot of reactivity, which trained him to work efficiently under pressure and against time constraints.

As soon as he graduated in 2006, at 22 years old, he created his first company in computer services: www.besoindaide.com. With the democratization of new technologies use came an increasing need for support services. By providing online remote assistance, SOHOs and individuals could access for the first time to cheap and efficient remote help instantly. The company quickly became the leader in remote assistance in France. That first entrepreneurial experience gave him a global vision of all the aspects required to develop a business. The included defining the company's strategy, marketing and sales, managing human resources and dealing with legal aspects.

After 4 years, in 2010, he felt the need to do something more inspiring. He decided to close his company and travel around the world for a while. He hoped that traveling would open his eyes as to what happens abroad and maybe inspire him to do something more fulfilling with his life. In the meantime, he became very interested in the process of movie making, and the affordability of HD-DSLR cameras made it possible to produce professional content on a small budget. To gain experience in editing techniques and storytelling, he decided to write a blog where he would share videos with interesting facts, about stories he witnessed abroad.

When he arrived in Cambodia, he fell in love with the warmth of the people and was inspired by the enthusiasm of the kids, despite their abject poverty. That's when he decided to dedicate his time to try to lift them from their plight. Currently, he is chairing several projects that aim to spread English educational opportunities to children around Cambodia."
http://www.jeanlucnguyen.com/#about

Jean-Luc

 Nguyen

Entrepreneur, backpacker, geek and humanitarian

It doesn't look like a mandarin [orange], but it's still a Mandarin [duck]. The Mandarin Duck (Aix galericulata) - set of 4 W.W.F. maximum cards / maxicards / dorincards about DPR Korea, otherwise known as North Korea

"Mandarin (bureaucrat), a bureaucrat of modern Japan, Imperial China, Vietnam, and by analogy, any government bureaucrat."

Any government bureaucrat, such as House Speaker Jim Boehner (R).

Mandarin Jim.

He's a FED...and we are fed-up.

But he's not a silver spoon-fed fat cat.

"Early life, education and career

Boehner was born in Reading, Ohio, the son of Mary Anne and Earl Henry Boehner, the second of twelve children in a family of German and Irish descent.^[2][3][4] 

He grew up in modest circumstances, having shared one bathroom with his eleven siblings in a two-bedroom house in Cincinnati. [MY NOTE: is "confrontational" a keyword?]

His parents slept on a pull-out couch.^[5] 

He started working at his family's bar at age 8, a business founded by their grandfather Andy Boehner in 1938.^[5] He has lived in Southwest Ohio his entire life.[MY NOTE: does that increase the intellectual magnitude?]

All but two of his siblings still live within a few miles of each other; two are unemployed and most of the others have blue-collar jobs.^[6"] 

^{[MY NOTE: other politicians think that there's no fun in having political power,} 

^{if you don't abuse it]}

He is not known as Gentleman Jim.

"Gentleman Jim may refer to:

Nicknames of:

• James J. Corbett (1866-1933), a heavyweight boxing champion
• Jim Reeves (1923–1964), a country and popular music singer
• Jim Lonborg (born 1942), a major league baseball pitcher
• James K. Woolnough (1910-1996), a U.S. Army general
• James J. Yeager, head football coach at Ohio State University and the University of Colorado at Boulder in the 1940s
• Jim Kramer (born 1958), a champion Scrabble player" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gentleman_Jim

He is not Jungle Jim, either.

But is he a BAYNER?

"The German pronunciation of the name Boehner/Böhner is [ˈbøːnɐ] BUH-nair. 

However, Boehner's biography at House.gov recommends the pronunciation BAY-ner." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boehner  

http://www.zazzle.com/oh_really_postage-172747913297627772?rf=238693463283865848

UPDATE: I have googled the name Boehner, to see if this blogpost is already indexed by the search engines, and I saw this website below, in the search results. I never knew about this website. :)

http://www.dickipedia.org/dick.php?title=John_Boehner

Anyway, the point about a mandarin (bureaucrat) is what he does as "a public servant", not how he fancies his name pronounced.

"In one speech, Obama mentioned Boehner's name nine times^[39] and accused him of believing that police, firefighters, and teachers were jobs "not worth saving."^[40]"

^{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boehner}

Memory refresher for all those Mandarin bureaucrats, including Scott "Walker, Wisconsin Ranger":

when disaster strikes and everybody rushes out, 

THE FIREFIGHTERS are supposed to RUSH IN.

And they do it!

This is a custom postcard, that I designed front and back, at zazzle. You can further customize it.

WTC2, with Public Domain photo from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:WTC-Fireman_requests_10_more_colleagesa.jpg

http://www.zazzle.com/wtc2_postcard-239331173870369136?rf=238693463283865848

http://www.zazzle.com/now_where_was_i_before_i_got_interrupted_postage-172442505130559121?rf=238693463283865848

Ah, yes! We were Speaking in the House about the Mandarin duck.

"The Mandarin Duck (Aix galericulata), or just Mandarin, is a medium-sized perching duck, closely related to the North American Wood Duck. It is 41–49 cm long with a 65–75 cm wingspan.

The adult male is a striking and unmistakable bird. It has a red bill, large white crescent above the eye and reddish face and "whiskers". The breast is purple with two vertical white bars, and the flanks ruddy, with two orange "sails" at the back. The female is similar to female Wood Duck, with a white eye-ring and stripe running back from the eye, but is paler below, has a small white flank stripe, and a pale tip to its bill.^[2]

Unlike other species of ducks, most Mandarin drakes reunite with the hens they mated with along with their offsprings after the eggs have hatched and even share scout duties in watching the ducklings closely.^[3] However, even with both parents securing the ducklings, most of them do not survive to adulthood."

"In the eyes of ancient Chinese, Mandarin Ducks form a life-time couple, unlike many other species of ducks. Hence they are frequently featured in Oriental art and are regarded as a symbol of conjugal affection and fidelity.

A Chinese proverb for loving couples uses the Mandarin Duck as a metaphor: "Two mandarin ducks playing in water" (simplified Chinese: 鸳鸯戏水; traditional Chinese: 鴛鴦戲水; pinyin: yuān yāng xì shuǐ). The Mandarin Duck symbol is also used in Chinese weddings, because in traditional Chinese lore they symbolize wedded bliss and fidelity."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandarin_Duck

"North Korea (ⁱ /ˈnɔrθ kəˌriə/), officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea(DPRK)"

"After the collapse of the Soviet Union and a series of natural disasters, a famine occurred, causing the death of 900,000 to 2 million people.^[18]

Facing these circumstances, leader Kim Jong-Il adopted Songun, or a "military-first" policy in order to strengthen the country and its government.^[19] 

Although North Korea is officially a socialist republic,^[20] many outside media organizations report that it is a totalitarian Stalinist dictatorship^{[13][14][21][22][23]} with an elaborate cult of personality around the Kim family and one of the worst human rights records of any country.^[24] 

North Korea is the world's most militarized nation with a total of 9,495,000 active, reserve, and paramilitary personnel.^[25] 

It is a nuclear weapons state, and has an active space program.^[26] 

Due to the government's secretive nature and its reluctance to allow in foreigners, North Korea is today considered the world's most isolated country and has thus been given the moniker "The Hermit Kingdom" by some.^{[27][28][29]"}

^{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_korea}

In the duck images from the top, I'm sure you'll see some pink spots, enough to make a stretch/related post for Happy Pink Saturday meme. :) .

============

Happy Pink Saturday! (still open on Sunday!)

^{Please visit "Pretty in pink"/ "Show us your pink" [objects, that is :)] meme here:}

^{http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/my_weblog/}