Our Thoughts Are With Him
And his perverted, murderous Stalinist cult of personality in this time of suspected personal crisis. Forbes:
In a country as secretive and closed-off as North Korea, it is difficult to know if the non-appearance of its reclusive Dear Leader, Kim Jong Il, is news or just rumors as usual.
There has been gossip for some days among North Korea watchers that Kim collapsed two weeks ago, possibly of a serious illness. In the past, he has been reported to be diabetic and suffering from chronic heart disease –both of which he has denied–or that possibly he suffered a stroke, as some U.S. intelligence officials have surmised.
At the end of last week, a South Korean newspaper quoted high-ranking officials as saying that a team of Chinese doctors had gone to Pyongyang to examine the North Korean dictator.
All of which added grist to a long-running rumor mill about Kim’s health. Just as still-unconfirmed reports did last year that German doctors had performed heart bypass surgery on Kim.
But the latest gossip gained some credence Tuesday. Kim did not show up for a huge military parade in the capital marking the 60th anniversary of North Korea’s founding–not the sort of symbolic event a dictator whose power base is the army brushes off lightly. And he was was there for the 50th and 55th anniversary parades.
Kim has not been seen in public since inspecting a military unit Aug. 14. There have been many times before, though, that he has disappeared from view for longer. He was a no-show for 42 days in 2003.
Well, that’s all a wicked bummer. But what happens if he croaks, or simply is forced to spend the rest of his days in a corner drooling on himself?
Kim Jong Il’s own eldest son, Kim Jong Nam, 37, held a senior position in the Security Ministry until he was caught trying to sneak into Japan in 2001 on a fake passport, saying he wanted to visit Tokyo Disneyland, and was deported to China. As far as anyone can tell, that knocked back his political career, but he has recently been restored to a party position, and it was he who inspected the military ranks in today’s parade.
If the dictatorial dynasty is to continue, Kim Jong Nam’s main rival would likely be Kim Jong Chol, 27, the elder of two sons Kim Jong Il had by his second mistress, Ko Yong Hi. (Kim Jong Nam is the son of the Dear Leader’s first mistress, Sung Hae Rim; both women are dead. Kim is estranged from his wife, by whom he had a daughter.)
Kim Jong Chol also holds a senior party position, and potentially more important, he may have support within the army. His younger brother, Kim Jong Un, 24, is said to be his father’s favorite, but none of the three sons has been anointed heir apparent in a way detectable by the outside world. If internal fractures open up within the regime should Kim Jong Il die or be incapacitated, the Raul Castro bridge figure would likely be Kim Yong Nam, the 80-year-old who is Kim Jong Il’s No. 2 and the country’s most familiar diplomat. But that assumes reports of Kim Jong Il’s ill-health are not greatly exaggerated.
None of which is too helpful to understanding whether they come over the DMZ, or pack it in and open up the gates, or just continue on with the wretched starvation, murder, torture and brainwashing program.
DPRK News isn’t helpful either. No earnest people’s deepest wishes of everlasting Juche for the old bugger, though by coincidence perhaps he’s getting a lot of flowers.
Reports indicate his infirmity or demise would bollix the nuke talks, though I’m not sure that makes much difference per se. Theoretically Kim and the foreign policy moderates, whatever that means in North Korea, are driving that bus over objections of the military, but I haven’t seen anything to indicate they really want to do more than chisel the west for food and oil, and they’ve been backtracking lately. UK Independent notes:
Whether Kim Jong-il is well, ill or even dead is in one sense irrelevant. North Korea is a nuclear-armed regime led by a group of generals who are as unpredictable as they are isolated.
The Independent wants the outside world to play its hand with the utmost care. Here, via NY Times, is the goosestepalooza Kim missed. Times is also mystified about what happens when Kim kicks the bucket or turns into a basket case.
On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the onset of new, previously unimagined depths of bleakness and misery on the Korean peninsula, the NKs issued the following cheery, paranoid-pschizophrenic statement:
SEOUL:~”The whole People’s Army soldiers and people will reinforce self-defence capabilities to cope with any aggressive ploy by the US imperialists,” said a message from the communist state’s cabinet on the eve of the anniversary.
“Should the enemies dare to ignite a war,” the North “will mercilessly punish the invaders, mobilising all-powerful potential built up in the midst of the rainstorm of military-oriented revolution and achieve a final victory in an anti-US war.”
Topics: everything
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 11:07 pm on Tuesday, September 9, 2008
2 Responses to “Our Thoughts Are With Him”
Leave a Reply
Trackback URLYou must be logged in to post a comment.
September 10th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
But I thought Kim Jong Il was supposed to be immortal. Could be he’s experiencing an epiphany.
September 10th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
I don’t want him to die soon. I want it to take a long time and I want it to hurt like hell. And I want him to get the same “free” medical care he mandates for his proles. Heh.