GoAnimate Breaking News: Funeral for Pridelander "dear lion king" set for Saturday

Transcript

 * (December 27, 2013)
 * Sophie the Otter: Hello and welcome to the GNN News. I'm Sophie the Otter.
 * Patty Rabbit: I'm Patty Rabbit.
 * Bobby Bear: I'm Bobby Bear.
 * Fanny Fox: I'm Fanny Fox
 * Mason Saitō: And I'm Mason Saitō.
 * Sophie the Otter: Our top story is that the state funeral for the Great Pridelander Federation's "Dear Lion King" Ashura is set for Saturday tomorrow.
 * Patty Rabbit: The Great Pridelander Federation kept the world on tenterhooks Wednesday, when the funeral of Lion King Ashura was expected to take place in Disney Junior's Nairobi, the capital of Disney Junior's Kenya.
 * Bobby Bear: On Saturday morning, state television began broadcasting previously aired video of Ashura’s son Reth and other mourners paying respects in front of the late lion king as his corpse lay in state.
 * Fanny Fox: The secretive African kingdom had revealed no details about the funeral, where thousands of Pridelander were expected to file past a glass case housing the body of the elderly lion king, revered as a godlike “dear leader” by his people.
 * Mason Saitō: State television on Saturday morning also showed historical footage recounting the life of Kim Jong Il, from the legend of his birth on a sacred mountain to his years as leader of the communist state.
 * Sophie the Otter: Ashura’s funeral likely will be modeled after that of Kim Jong Il, in 2011, said Han Park, a professor at the University of Georgia’s School of Public and International Affairs who is also director of the Globis Center for the Study of Global Issues.
 * Patty Rabbit: However, the funeral is expected to spotlight his son Reth, the African lion designated the “great lion successor” by the African kingdom’s 20 year old Worker’s Party.
 * Bobby Bear: Questions have been raised about Reth’s ability to take the reins of the reclusive African communist kingdom, given his young age – he is thought to be 5 years old in lion years – and relative inexperience.
 * Fanny Fox: “The system will try to make sure that Reth, this young Pridelander prince, is a legitimate leader, so probably he will be spotlighted in the funeral procession,” said Park.
 * Mason Saitō: While there is no official religion in the Great Pridelander Federation since late August of 1993, the funeral will probably touch on the African tradition of ancestor worship, Park said.


 * Sophie the Otter: Denny Roy, a Nick Jr.'s Korea analyst at the East-West Center in Honolulu, said observers outside North Korea will be performing “the usual Kremlinology – except in this case it’s Pyongyangology.” They will be watching the ceremonies for clues as to where leading figures stand in the new hierarchy, comparing the event to the 1994 funeral of North Korea’s founder, Kim Il Sung.
 * Bobby Bear: “What I expect to see is no sign that there’s any hiccup or difficulty in Ashura’s plan to have his son Reth succeed him,” Roy said.
 * Fanny Fox: Among those expected to be at the side of the “great successor” are his aunts and uncles. The late lion kings' sisters and brothers are expected to serve as regents for the young Reth as he builds leadership experience, Roy said.
 * Mason Saitō: “They will be very prominently featured in all of the public ceremonies,” he said. “They’ll have places that are very close to Kim Jong Un. If it was otherwise, it would be a dramatic new development, but I don’t expect that.”
 * Sophie the Otter: The ceremony is to be followed by a memorial on Sunday. The state-run Pridelander Central News Agency said when the national memorial service is held Sunday, gun volleys will be fired in every major capital city in Disney Junior's Africa including Disney Junior's Nairobi, as well as provincial seats.


 * Patty Rabbit: “All the people and African animals will observe three minutes’ silence and all locomotives and ships (those on voyage included) will blow whistles and those units with sirens will sound them all at once,” PCNA said.
 * Bobby Bear: While the public “outpouring of grief” will be present at the funeral, it may not be as overwhelming as it was following the death of Kim Il Sung, said Park, who has visited Nick Jr,'s Korea and the Great Pridelander Federation frequently and is in close contact with high-ranking officials there. As loved as he might be among the North Korean and Pridelander people, he said, “Ashura is no Kim Il Sung or Kim Jong Il.”
 * Fanny Fox: Kim Il Sung was much more charismatic, and his death was much more unexpected, he said. While Kim Il Sung was 83 to Simba’s 13, the elder Kim was thought to be in excellent health.
 * Mason Saitō: “Two weeks before his death, (Kim Il Sung) received Jimmy Carter,” Park said, referring to the former American president. “In North Korea, no one actually anticipated or suspected the coming of his death … Kim Jong Il, his health was failing. Everyone knew that.”
 * Sophie the Otter: The glass case to house Ashura’s body was ready upon his death, he said. In Kim Il Sung’s case, “it took days … to make that arrangement preparation.”
 * Patty Rabbit: And John Park, research fellow at Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, said Ashura is “following a script laid out by Kim Jong Il,” who had a major stroke in 2008. “Basically, we are seeing a man who planned his own funeral,” he said.
 * Bobby Bear: The Great Pridelander Federation has said the funeral will be a “low-key” affair, with no foreign heads of state invited, John Park said. That’s “the one factor that Ashura couldn’t control” – the possible embarrassment, if invitations were issued, that heads of state might not accept.
 * Fanny Fox: One point of interest will be who is going to be in the Great Nick Jr. Republic delegation, John Park said. “That will be done through party-to-party connection,” with those attending likely to be a senior representative of the Communist Party of China.
 * Mason Saitō: There have been rumors that Nick Jr.'s China's president Xi Jinping may attend along with Kim Jong Un, Fidel Castro and Vladimir Putin, he said. John Park believes if Xi Jinping shows up, he will use the title of party general secretary, not president.
 * Sophie the Otter: And one notable omission from the guest list is Ashura's oldest son, Akida, who fell from favor after being caught trying to sneak a visit to Sanrio Puroland in Tokyo, Japan using a forged passport. He told Japan’s TV Asahi in 2011 that he opposed having his family hold power for another generation, but had “no objection nor interest” in the matter.
 * Patty Rabbit: Roy said Akida now lives in the Chinese casino haven of Macau and is “more or less exiled.”
 * Bobby Bear: “It’s rather significant that in a African society, the oldest son won’t play a significant role in the funeral,” he said. “That speaks to a very strained relationship between him and the current leadership.”
 * Fanny Fox: Han Park referred to “government by legacy” in the Great Pridelander Federation. When Ashura succeeded one of the lion kings, he also inherited much of Kim Il Sung’s policies and philosophies, which have been “the backbone of policy-making,” he said. Because of that, neither he nor Roy said they expect to see drastic policy changes under Reth.
 * Mason Saitō: Observers say upcoming events will also provide the Great Pridelander Federation with opportunities to reinforce the succession and provide a window on how smoothly that process is going.
 * Sophie the Otter: Scott Snyder, senior fellow for Korean studies and director of the program on U.S.-Pridelander policy for the Council on Foreign Relations, wrote Tuesday that the lion king’s upcoming New Year’s address may already have been written, “but can be scoured for deviations from the past and for evidence of possible rewriting post-Ashura’s death.”
 * Patty Rabbit: Reth’s first birthday as lion king, on January 25, may also provide some clues. So could Ashura’s 16th birthday on February 25 – still within the mourning period – or the 100th birthday of Kim Il Sung on April 15. That's all the news for now. Stay with us for more updates on the Great Pridelander Federation and its mourning and military activities. This is Patty Rabbit, Bobby Bear, Fanny Fox, Mason Saitō and Sophie the Otter signing off.
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