You know how recent pictures of North Korea’s Dear Leader have looked sort of…zombified? While he’s not dead yet, it may not be far off the mark. According to a South Korean news channel, Kim has pancreatic cancer, which is enough to make anyone look (and feel) like hell.
Of course, it can’t be confirmed - this is North Korea, nothing can ever be confirmed – but there’s obviously something not right with his health.
If Kim kicks the bucket (and I’m trying to be sympathetic to him and his family, but it’s just not happening) his son Kim Jong-Un is apparently in line to take over the country. Kim Jon-Un sounds like an even bigger winner than his father, so I’m not sure if we should hope Dear Leader can hang on, or if we should hope he buys the farm.
While it would be nice to think that his death would bring an end to the oppression, in reality, it just paves the way for a new Kim-groomed dictator to take his place who is probably just as whacko has he is.
That's a damn good point…North Korean politics are mired in a crapload of hereditary despotism. I wonder what it would take to truly effect regime change in North Korea.
Indeed. In fact, if I have my fruitcake-politics right, Kim Jong-Il's father is still considered the true ruler of North Korea, despite the inconvenient fact that he's dead. Kim Jong-Il is more like a Military Regent, ruling as his father's representative. As long as the government is able to keep the population enthralled in the father's "cult of personality" (to use the media term), they can put anyone connected to the family in power and the people will go right along with it, as if it were divine providence.
Yes, that's correct. North Korea's true president is a ghost. I think Christopher Hitchens has described North Korea as a 'necrocracy'