Jean-Baptiste Kim: “My Bad”
RE my earlier post on No Man’s Blog regarding a proposed rock and roll concert in Pyongyang, North Korea called “Rock for Peace.” Here’s an excruciatingly perverse excerpt from an article that appeared on the Web site “Voice of Korea” last fall (H/T: DPRK Studies):
If you are a band playing any kind of rock, including heavy metal, then you can participate ‘ROCK FOR PEACE’ in Pyong Yang, the capital city of North Korea. This is the very first time in history that North Korea allows western musicians in the heart of DPRK territory to play capitalist popular music. There are few restrictions and conditions on participation but any band will be considered even though you are from USA. The lyrics should not contain admirations on war, sex, violence, murder, drug, rape, non-governmental society, imperialism, colonialism, racism, anti-DPRK, and anti-socialism. (Effluent sez: the bizarre English is in the original. The excerpt is a verbatim cut and paste.)
The gentleman who runs this site is named Jean-Baptiste Kim, and he used to carry outrageous (but cool) pro-North Korean propaganda. As a necessary component of the overall effort, he also carried all manner of virulent anti-American propaganda. Here’s a re-post of one of Mr. Kim’s attempts at mimicking the “rhetoric” of George Bush:
‘I warn you that don’t even think about your lives in the diversity! The reason is simple. I am the ruler of the United States and the rest of the world. Do you need more reasons than this? Therefore, every primitive nation must follow American rules and should obey to USA system. I will tell you what to do and you just do what I say. That’s enough to make the world secure. Therefore, you just shut up and follow me otherwise I will teach you with my gun and I will shoot your ass as I did to dirty and smelly Afghanistan and Iraq’. (Emphasis added by Effluent.)
Now, I know that people from Texas speak differently from “normal Americans,” but that stuff goes a little overboard. Sadly, I can’t link to the original anymore because Jean-Baptiste seems to have had a change of heart. If you go to “Voice of Korea” today, you’ll find a sad (albeit rambling) mea culpa entitled “My coup d’etat, conscience against reasons of state.” Personally, I would have given it the title “How North Korea duped me into propagandizing for them; I think I’ll market cell phones instead.” Here’s a condensed version of Jean-Baptiste’s confession:
The happiness in France does not mean that I forgot all the miseries I experienced in South Korea. My anger was still like the volcano and a North Korean diplomat I met in Paris gave me a solution how to express my anger toward South Korea. I have visited PyongYang for the first time with him and learned lots of things about the real North Korea.
[…]
The rights of ordinary people always have been the measurement of the democracy in my life but the reality I saw in North Korea was what just against my political belief.
[…]
I have seen ordinary people’s life is hard and the national security has been long time political excuse over the poor status of ordinary people there.
[…]
I required ordinary North Korean people to be sacrifices of national security in my theory but I did not participate their miserable lives myself. I must confess myself that I am such coward and one of the most hypocritical figures in modern Korean history. My fictitious behaviours are also against my religious conscience as I am a Roman Catholic and I ask lord a forgiveness.
[…]
I today officially declare that I stop all supports for DPRK regime but will do the same supports for North Korean ordinary people instead. This declaration will surely result myself being abandoned by DPRK government just like I have been abandoned by South Korean government before.
[…]
I regret my life with DPRK government for last 10 years but will not repeat the same mistake again in future.
[…]
I also need to announce that ROCK FOR PEACE will be suspended along with myself.
Will be suspended along with myself? Oh my God! DON’T SUSPEND YOURSELF, KIM! Anyone can make a mistake!
Sigh. Now both the South AND the North Korean governments have dumped him. How sad is that? (A “man without a country” and all that rot.) But don’t despair, folks; Kim has a new plan:
I am soon starting a small phone shop here in London selling mobile phones and I am very happy to come back to the normal civilian society. It has been very long time that I was away from the society.
Indeed, perhaps this weirdo can earn some brownie points from the South Korean government if he channels his propaganda skills into hawking merchandise for Samsung instead of purveying misinformation for a repressive regime of lying, counterfeiting, drug-dealing crooks and ASSHOLES.
So “Rock for Peace” is off. It’s sad…terribly sad. (I heard through back channels that he had signed the popular Danish industrial band “Skippy and the Saltines” to play, too.) What a waste….
I forgot to mention that Jean-Baptiste still hates America. But then, who gives a damn?
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