Election fever grips North Korea

Kim Jong Il Participates in Election of Deputies to Local People's Assemblies

Pyongyang, July 29 (KCNA) -- General Secretary Kim Jong Il Sunday visited the Chusang Co-op Farm in Hamju County, South Hamgyong Province to participate in the election of deputies to the provincial, city and county people's assemblies of the DPRK.
He received ballots from the chairman of Sub-Constituency No. 36 of Constituency No. 85 for election of deputies to the South Hamgyong Provincial People's Assembly and cast them for Choe Sun Hui, sub-work team head of the Sangjung Co-op Farm of Hamju County, who is candidate for deputy to the South Hamgyong Provincial People's Assembly and Ho Kum Suk, chairperson of the Management Board of the Chusang Co-op Farm of the County, who is candidate for deputy to the Hamju County People's Assembly.
Then he conversed with the candidates.
After voting, he acquainted himself with the farm work there and the rural construction. He highly appreciated the achievements made by the party members and other working people of the farm, expressing satisfaction over the fact that they have built the village into a socialist fairyland and brought about a signal boost in the agricultural production through a dynamic drive to fully implement the tasks given by President Kim Il Sung while visiting the farm in March, 1959.
He expressed expectation and belief that the agricultural workers of the farm would bring about a new surge in turning out agricultural products by fully displaying patriotic devotion, fully aware of their responsibility for the agricultural production.
He was accompanied by Secretary of the Central Committee of the WPK Kim Ki Nam and Department Director of the WPK Central Committee Pak Nam Gi.

- from the Korean Central News Agency.

I swear I haven't made up Ho Kum Suk, though naturally I cannot vouch for his/her being a real chairperson and not the invention of some subversive soul at the KCNA.

Is the General Secretary losing his touch? Surely he should have conversed with the candidates first, and then cast his ballots. How would he have felt if he'd found out too late that he'd voted for a wrong un?

And, whilst all credit is due to the folk who've built the socialist fairyland (can one buy a retirement home there, I wonder?), I can't help feeling that the dynamic drive must be a little on the leisurely side if they're still working their way through Dad's to-do list from 1959. A brisk 'pull up your socks' might perhaps have been more appropriate than all that guff about patriotic devotion.