North Korea’s “Dear Leader” Kim Jong-il is dead. No one knows what is likely to follow. But one important measure of reform by the new leadership will be ending the regime’s brutal religious persecution. The so-called Democratic People’s Republic of Korea pioneered the fusion of Communism and monarchy when in 1994 Kim succeeded his father, Kim Il-sung, as supreme leader. Before his death, Kim Jong-il sought to ensure the same transition to his youngest son, Kim Jong-un. But the latter Kim, tagged “Great Successor” by North Korea’s official media, may not live up to his new title. Kim Jong-il spent a couple decades ascending the party hierarchy under his father’s protection; he anointed his own son less than three years ago. There are plenty of claimants to the throne who have been waiting a long time for the Kims to step, or be pushed, aside. Whoever wins the inevitable power struggle will face a nation in crisis: isolated and impoverished, the North wins attention only by highlighting its missile and nuclear programs. The country desperately needs economic reform if it is ever going to become “a powerful and prosperous country,” the theme for next year’s planned celebration of the 100th anniversary of Kim Il-sung’s birth. Even more pressing is political reform. The DPRK suffers under the most murderously repressive government on earth. The stultifying personality cult, extensive system of prison camps, and ruthless suppression of dissent look a lot like Stalin’s Soviet Union, Hoxha’s Albania, and Mao’s China. The North also is among the world’s most vicious religious persecutors. For the Kim cult is akin to a religion, as evidenced by the exaggerated grief expressed over Kim Jong-il’s death.
There’s a lot that can be said about North Korea.
We know that the likes of Raul Castro, Hugo Chavez, Daniel Ortega and Robert Mugabe are grieving over the loss of their fellow tyrant Kim Jong-Il. Well, North Korea’s state run news agency is claiming that former President Jimmy Carter expressed his condolences on the passing of Kim Jong-Il and wished his youngest son Kim Jong-Un “every success.” Now one is normally disinclined to
Soon after the death of Kim Jong-il was announced, U.S. television audiences were treated to many clips of North Koreans keening and wailing over the passing of The Dear Leader. Since he had died (on a train) two days before the announcement, there was plenty of time to stage-manage the grief. Kim was a master of keeping leaks about the poverty and repression of his people to a minimum.
As others have noted , there is nothing good to say on behalf of North Korea’s recently departed “Dear Leader” Kim Jong-il.
