I mentioned the helium propaganda balloons being sent over North Korea a while back. Marcus Noland and Stephan Haggard report on the latest developments at their new blog. Flights have been cancelled, apparently, because the mother of the one of the effort's main leaders has been murdered. Naturally, given North Korean threats over the issue, this is more than a little sinister.
Here's the flier being dropped – or currently not being dropped – over the Great Socialist Nation:
A translation:
REPUBLIC OF FATSOES
The people are starving to death but Kim Jong Il and his sons are…
(Pictures of Kim Jong Il and sons)
The diseases that Kim Jong Il is suffering from–stroke, obesity and diabetes–are all caused by EATING TOO MUCH!! The sons Jong Nam and Jong Eun are also OBESE!!
The people of North Korea are surviving on wild clovers because they don’t even have corn…
The picture of the girl in the lower right of the flier caused a sensation in South Korea in late 2010 as a result of a smuggled video by Rimjin-gang reporter Kim Dong-cheol. A 23 year-old girl who looks no more than 14 is filmed picking clover to eat, typical foraging behavior of those facing extreme food distress. She said she had lost her parents and was starving. A few days after the interview, according to Rimjin-gang, she was found dead in a field.
Also, at the same site, more information on the fishermen tug-of-war that I posted about here and here.
Mick Hartley 
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