Choi Soung-ah, a spokeswoman for UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, said it was customary practice for the UN flag to be lowered to half-mast upon the deaths of leaders of UN member states.

I thought North Korea wasn't a UN member state.

DamnYankees: Choi Soung-ah, a spokeswoman for UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, said it was customary practice for the UN flag to be lowered to half-mast upon the deaths of leaders of UN member states.

I thought North Korea wasn't a UN member state.

It is, only Worst Korea and Japan do not recognize it. Both Best and Worst Korea claim sovereignty over the entire Korean peninsula, neither one officially recognizes the other. Lots of nations have diplomatic missions (new window) there, though many are in Beijing or Seoul rather than Pyongyang.

Whatever your opinion of kim (and believe me mine is very, very low), he WAS the head of state of an actual honest to god sovereign nation recognized by most of the world. Therefore, I say meh to this gesture from the UN.

polite gesture from an organization of sovereign states to a [rogue] member who's [much hated rogue] leader just died?

what exactly is the BFD?


some people are idiots who love making mountains out of molehills.

Kazan: polite gesture from an organization of sovereign states to a [rogue] member who's [much hated rogue] leader just died?

what exactly is the BFD?


some people are idiots who love making mountains out of molehills.

People don't understand that it is possible to show respect for someone's death without having to outright agree or like what the person did with their life.

What's more likely is that, because no one knows how Un will rule, everyone's being nice to gauge just how much of a psychopath this kid is.

Osama got the same treatment.

No big deal.

Did it get lowered for Saddam Hussein?

I think, subby, you really mean Robert Welch, not John Birch.

Hooray for the UN! Usefull AND reprectful of tyrannical leaders.
It's perfect that they're in new york

TV's Vinnie: I guess if Hitler held out in his bunker for one more month (the UN Charter was signed in May 1945), the first official act of the UN would have been to fly it's flag at half staff after he blew his brains out.

Germany wasn't a member state of the UN, so...no.

rhondajeremy:
So you would have been okay if the UN had done this for Hitler?

//just curious

mongbiohazard:

I think it's more along the lines of that it doesn't seem particularly respectful of all the thousands upon thousands, millions arguably, of lives that madman destroyed in his quest to maintain power & status quo his whole life.

Melvin Lovecraft:

[www.mtholyoke.edu image 450x308]

Disagrees with your empathy.

Paying respects to one person's death doesn't mean you're complicit with their ideology. Take the republicans and their obsession with Reagan, for example.

Jokes aside, because Best Korea is a UN member nation,it's likely to be quite customary for the UN to do this towards the nation itself, rather than the man personally like it's being perceived and raged about here.

Personally, couldn't care less either way what the UN does with its own flags.There's more important things to worry about, like just how much like Il is Un gonna be and how much worse than that.

DarnoKonrad: Codenamechaz: Paying respects to one person's death doesn't mean you're complicit with their ideology.

That's not true, the post office flew the flag at half staff for Nixon and then bugged my office.

So that explains why we got the recording 3 weeks late.

leevis: Walker: Did it get lowered for Saddam Hussein?

I doubt it, I don't think Saddam was still considered the leader of Iraq at his time of death.

Whether the UN considered him the leader or not he was still the leader. He never resigned.

jaytkay: Milo Minderbinder: I'm pretty sure that CPT Birch, or at least the society's members, couldn't give a flying fark what the UN does.

Actually, becoming enraged at the mention of the UN is favorite hobby among conservatives.

They learn the behavior from the daily 2 Minutes Hate on AM radio and FOX.

Remember when a guy who wanted to dismantle the UN was named to be our UN Ambassador? Good times....good times.

Walker: Whether the UN considered him the leader or not he was still the leader.

From the perspective of the UN, that does sort of matter.