- Memory of Kim Il-Sung's sudden death after meeting Carter in 94
- Rumors abound about Carter's malign influence on international events
- Many North Koreans give credence to such superstition
- Hope that similar fate awaits Kim Jong-il

A source in Hyesan, Yanggangdo, hearing of the news of former US president Jimmy Carter's visit to North Korea, said April 26th, "To ordinary North Koreans, Jimmy Carter is a very inauspicious individual."

Less than a month after meeting Kim Il-sung on June 17th, 1994, the former North Korean leader was dead. The source said that although in his eighties, Kim Il-sung was said to have a heart as strong as a man half his age. Yet shortly after his meeting with Carter, Kim Il-sung's death of a heart attack shook the entire population.

"At that time people saw a link between the visit of Carter and Kim Il-sung's death," the source went on. "The rumor is that Carter is the source of global calamities and wars and crises wherever he goes."

"Another rumor has it that Carter's wife Rosalind is some kind of famous scientist and that when she met and shook Kim Il-sung's hand she rubbed a pharmaceutical into it so causing his death." Of course this is a nonsense but such rumors pass between North Koreans.

"It will be propaganda and recognition of Kim Jong-eun as a four star general and a legitimate inheritor to power in the North," said the source when asked how people regard the prospect of Carter meeting with Kim Jong-eun and Kim Jong-il. "There are also," he concluded, "those who hope that he might provide the kiss of death to Kim Jong-il, too, after they meet."

Translated by Danny Lee