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 PYONGYANG TRAFFIC GIRL AWARDED TITLE "HERO OF THE DPRK"

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PostSubject: Re: PYONGYANG TRAFFIC GIRL AWARDED TITLE "HERO OF THE DPRK"   PYONGYANG TRAFFIC GIRL AWARDED TITLE "HERO OF THE DPRK" - Page 1 Icon_minitimeThu Jun 13, 2013 4:50 pm

There is a difference between accepting an assertion as fact, and understanding the fact that an assertion has been made.

With that in mind, I don't know if the story I was told about Ri jumping in front of a tram is factually true, but it is fact that an official said that's what happened. I'm not in a position to say what a security detail (if any), driver, and route planners (again, if any) would or would not have been aware of. There is no mention of a motorcade anywhere in the story. As for executions, there is nothing in the story mentioning that either. One could read this story as an account of a security success, not a failure. After all, Ri "secured the safety of the brains of our revolution."

My guess-- and that's all it is-- is that Ri jumped in front of a tram to force the driver to stop, not that she actually put herself in danger. Nor, I imagine was anyone else in actual danger.

These kinds of stories are part of the national mythology. Speculating as others have done that Ri was given the highest national award for "rescuing" a poster or other nonsense is not helpful to understanding a complex society. Yet such stories are picked up and passed around until they creep their way into documented reality in the minds of westerners.
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PostSubject: Re: PYONGYANG TRAFFIC GIRL AWARDED TITLE "HERO OF THE DPRK"   PYONGYANG TRAFFIC GIRL AWARDED TITLE "HERO OF THE DPRK" - Page 1 Icon_minitimeSat Jun 15, 2013 7:07 pm

Yes, concerning the tram story, I don't have first hand knowledge whether true or not either, but I am just assuming some things - first, that it is highly doubtful to me that Kim Jong Un would be driven through Pyongyang in a lone car as he is the supreme leader of the DPRK, the nucleus of the cult of personality that drives the society. Revered and glorified as he is, there would no doubt be accompanying security personnel, which would require other vehicles, thus some kind of motorcade. And the lead cars would not be aware of a tram bearing down on the focus of their protection?  Such a breakdown in security would unquestionably lead to reprimands - and again I am assuming, given the nature of the regime, that could include executions.
 
Also I don't think it's exactly nonsense that in North Korea the rescue of a portrait could be the source of the attention given to our traffic policewoman.
 
There are previous instances of North Koreans being praised in their media for rescuing portraits or propaganda featuring one of the Kims. Andrei Lankov at Asian Times wrote about that subject in a long article last year:  http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/NE03Dg01.html 
"Portraits are treated with great reverence, and stories of heroes who risked or even sacrificed their lives to save the sacred visage are a staple in North Korean media."
 
In any case, something happened that resulted in our traffic lady receiving ultimate accolades from the regime.  
 
I find it curious that nowhere in the official statements do they explain exactly what it was that Ri Kyong Sim did. But with a strictly controlled media you only know what they want you to know. And apparently that is that she "secured the safety of the brains of our revolution" whatever that means. The tram story is as possible as any other explanation, and I agree with your guess that if that were the case, that she or others may not have been in any actual danger - but still was something sacrificial that was an excuse for the regime to publicly reward.  
 
 And that would be somewhat more of a noteworthy incident than the usual "saving a propaganda poster" stories that come from North Korea. But Ri Kyong Sim's "saving a poster" story could also be considered as the source, silly as it may sound to us, because as reported by New Focus International http://newfocusintl.com/exclusive-why-north-korea-handed-a-bravery-award-to-ri-kyong-sim/ from claimed sources inside North Korea, the traffic girl had put herself in danger of being burned while saving the portrait, so that dangerous "sacrifice" could be what they consider worthy of their highest national award and the accompanying media praise. They also claim that the awards were being conferred at Kim Jong Un’s explicit orders.
 
That being said, perhaps other visitors to North Korea will inquire about exactly what it was that Ri Kyong Sim did that resulted her award, and we can get more confirmation - either one story or another.

I'd still love to see the pictures of your trip to North Korea.
Ray Cunningham(Zaruka) has travelled there many times, and has come back with quite a lot of interesting photos. 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/zaruka/sets/
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PostSubject: Re: PYONGYANG TRAFFIC GIRL AWARDED TITLE "HERO OF THE DPRK"   PYONGYANG TRAFFIC GIRL AWARDED TITLE "HERO OF THE DPRK" - Page 1 Icon_minitimeSat Jul 06, 2013 3:35 pm

She must have done something very heroic to garner such attention and awards. I can believe the tram story as the country can be so disorganized, with lack of communication, that a motorcade moved without proper planning [or it was a spontaneous move without announcement for security or secretive reasons].traffic girl 

Whatever the reason, maybe just propaganda, she is heroine of the State and probably set for life!
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PostSubject: Re: PYONGYANG TRAFFIC GIRL AWARDED TITLE "HERO OF THE DPRK"   PYONGYANG TRAFFIC GIRL AWARDED TITLE "HERO OF THE DPRK" - Page 1 Icon_minitimeSun Jul 28, 2013 2:03 am

w511 wrote:
She must have done something very heroic to garner such attention and awards.  I can believe the tram story as the country can be so disorganized, with lack of communication, that a motorcade moved without proper planning [or it was a spontaneous move without announcement for security or secretive reasons].traffic girl 

Whatever the reason, maybe just propaganda, she is heroine of the State and probably set for life!
Yes, the tram story may possibly be the source of the awards...
There are also rumors of her preventing a car accident, or helping thwart an assassination attempt...
I just wish the DPRK media would say definitively what the whole story is.
And I would think that Ms. Ri is no doubt set for life. No worries, she.
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PostSubject: Re: PYONGYANG TRAFFIC GIRL AWARDED TITLE "HERO OF THE DPRK"   PYONGYANG TRAFFIC GIRL AWARDED TITLE "HERO OF THE DPRK" - Page 1 Icon_minitimeFri Nov 29, 2013 5:14 am

Update 2013/11/25:
Still no reliable source on Jong-Un assasination attempt,
or event that resulted Ri-Kyong Sim award.


From PIIE.com - An article that addresses all the speculation.

I highlighted relevant passages in bold type.

Article below...

    .... but we can’t restrain comment on the weird echo chamber that North Korea generates. Follow the bouncing ball.

    On November 21, the Chosun Ilbo reported—and we quote–“North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was subject to an assassination attempt last year and security has since been drastically beefed up, the RAND Corporation claims.” The International Business Times also ran a long feature on the assassination story, much of it devoted to Bennett’s speculation about how assassinations have occurred and might occur again.

    RAND and Bennett in fact have no information on such an assassination attempt; rather, they cite in a footnote a Joongang Daily from March of this year by Chang Se-jeong and Ser Myo-ja which is a issue of speculation based on the standard-issue unidentified “Seoul-based intelligence source.”

    In sum, a South Korean newspaper cites RAND as an authoritative source, when the “authoritative source” is an unidentified source in a South Korean newspaper story.

    That said, the reports are not utterly implausible, but they are vague and hard to follow. They center on two bits of “evidence”: the ups and downs of Kim Yong-chol, director of the Reconnaissance General Bureau; and an award given to a Pyongyang traffic cop.

    Kim Yong-chol was promoted to four-star general in February 2012 but was demoted to two-star lieutenant general in November, possibly in connection with // internal conflicts. The source claims that the move against Kim Jong Un came prior to and in anticipation of Kim’s demotion. The near-miss apparently led Kim Jong Un to cater to the hardliners in both policy and personnel matters; the source attributes the provocations earlier in the year as an effort to appease the military and notes that it was a resuscitated Kim Yong-chol, who appeared on television in March of this year to say that North Korea could annul the Armistice.

    And then there is the mysterious story covered well by The Wire–of the young female traffic officer named Ri-Kyong Sim who was given a “Hero of the Republic” award in an emotional over-the-top ceremony in Pyongyang. How could a lowly Pyongyang traffic cop win such an accolade? According to the the KCNA coverage, “Ri dedicated herself to ensuring the traffic order in the capital city and displayed the heroic self-sacrificing spirit of safeguarding the security of the headquarters of the revolution in an unexpected circumstance.” The HQ of the revolution is Kim Jong Un, and the secretary general of defector group NK Intellectuals Solidarity, Park Kun-Ha, speaking with the AFP, was thus simply connecting the dots: “I suspect it might have been linked to an assassination attempt disguised as a traffic accident.”

    Its North Korea, so arguably anything is possible; we are certainly sympathetic to a model of North Korea riven at the top by court intrigue. But when reading accounts such as these, caveat emptor; they rest on surprisingly thin reeds and echo chambers
http://www.piie.com/blogs/nk/?p=12329
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