North Korean Succession, Unveiled and Demystified
The North Korean regime is wrapping up festivities celebrating the debut of Kim Jong Un, the youngest acknowledged son of Kim Jong Il. If all goes according to plan — not likely — Jong Un will eventually succeed his father as “Great Leader” of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
On Sunday, we got two clues about the chubby dictator-in-waiting, who joined his dad on the reviewing stand high atop Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang as perhaps as many as 20,000 soldiers, sailors, and airmen marched in perfect precision. First, Jong Un was dressed in dark civilian garb.
And why is his choice of wardrobe significant? The young Kim — he is probably no more than 27 — was made a four-star general at the end of last month. The elevation occurred just hours before the opening of the first major gathering of the Korean Workers’ Party since 1980. And at the long-anticipated and unexpectedly delayed event, Kim was appointed vice chairman of the party’s Central Military Commission.
Yet despite the promotion, the “Young General” showed up on Sunday without uniform, stars, and medals. It is true that the two prior Kims took to wearing street clothes as they ruled. Jong Un’s grandfather, Kim Il Sung, customarily sported Western suits. His dad, Kim Jong Il, invariably dresses like a garage mechanic, as Madeleine Albright once remarked. Analysts, however, expected Kim Jong Un to appear in the Square on Sunday in the guise of a general to show off his high rank.
After all, the whole purpose of parading thousands of men and women through the capital was to demonstrate to domestic and foreign audiences that the Korean People’s Army stands behind the planned succession from father to son. For Kim Jong Un to attend a military affair as a civilian, therefore, is curious.
We don’t know the reasoning behind the sartorial choice, but it’s possible Kim Jong Il did not want to offend officers who had devoted their lives to earning stars. So the Kim-family transition may not be sitting well with some elements in the military.
It all seems to be happening very quickly. Is the crazy panda about to keel over or something?
Did you ever notice that, when young, North Korean leaders always look fat, while the rest of the country is literally starving to death? I think that shows a nice destinction between the ruling class in North Korea and all of the other serfs in the country who are forced to eat grass to survive.
What a horrific place North Korea is and China, in particular, has never been held responsible by this government for propping up this hideous monarchy in North Korea. Sure, we “protest” and make some noises now and then, but we never, ever, lean on China for supporting these psychotic lunatics in North Korea. I guess that’s what happens when you borrow billions from a communist nation and need them to fund all of our many social-welfare programs. We have to keep our mouths shut no matter how many evil dictators China decides to support. And remember, China is supporting a crazy dictator armed with nuclear weapons as well.
So, as China also supports another sick mongrel ruler in Iran while he also gets a nuclear weapon, will we remain silent as well? With Obama in office, you bet we will. The last dictator we stood up to and saw hanged by his own people was Saddam Hussein under a Republican president. Guess we’ll have to wait for another Republican president before the world does anything meaningful against those barbarians from North Korea.
Did you ever notice that, when young, North Korean leaders always look fat, while the rest of the country is literally starving to death?
Years ago, I read that Kim Jong (mentally) Il has his personal food and fine wines flown into North Korea on practially a daily basis.
Thus echoing the patterns of dictators at all times and in all places.
Soviets had their dachas, Saddam his palaces.
Barack Obama has his Kobe beef, vacations and trivial and wasteful use of Air Force One, while we the peeps must submit to cap ‘n trade and “necessarily skyrocketing” energy costs and all the other little socialist schemes.
We’re not yet reduced to eating clay and dirt, as has been reported from North Korea.
If Kim Il Sung was the “Great Leader” and Kim Jong Il is the “Dear Leader,” what fawning honorific are we to use for Baby Kim, “Really Keen Leader?”
Incomplete Leader? Not Ready for Prime Time Leader?
Kim Il Staypuft?
The younger Kim appears to be the perfect choice. He has the name, the looks, and the old guard will agree to him because they think he’ll be putty in their hands. Look at Bashir Assad in Syria. He got the job the same way.
I wonder how the North Korean propaganda ministry “sells” the idea that the appropriate successor to a dictator is his son? After all, this is a hardcore Marxist government and Marxists have historically been opposed to monarchies and the transfer of power from one generation to the next on the basis of bloodlines. How do they persuade “the masses” – and even the rest of the Party leadership – that the only logical successor of Kim Il Sung is his son Kim Jung Il and the only logical successor of Kim Jung Il is his son King Jong On? Wouldn’t “Marxist tradition”, for want of a better term, call for the Party to scour its ranks for the best and brightest Communist leader, rather than one of the spawn of the current leader?
Good points and questions, but remember that hypocrisy never bothers the Left. Never.
It’s clear to pretty much everyone, including those on the left, that communism naturally progresses toward totalitarianism. Utopianism just doesn’t work in the real world. Ayn Rand’s style of utopianism is equally unrealistic.
Its not really a Marxist society. At best it’s ancestor worship along the line s of Confucianism on speed with Marxist ideology added to it, and called Juche. The People of North Korea are forced to worship and believe that Kim il Sung was and is the Current President of the Country, and that Kim Jong Il literally came from heaven from a dual rainbows or some crazy hooha. This is a country that send dog carcasses to Japan and told them they were the bodies of the Japanese Kidnapped victims and the North didn’t realize that DNA testing existed…in 2002. The frightening thing about this country is that the average person believes the states propaganda as it is the only thing they are exposed to from birth.
Its a level of control Stalin could only dream about.
You make the mistake of thinking that North Korea is a Marxist state. Its not. It has been dynastic “communist” state since the 1960s. Any pretense of Marxism is purely our American ignorance of political systems.
This guy’s no lightweight. I mean, after all, he’s a 4 star general. Or is it five star admiral? No matter. Obviously he brims with natural intelligence. It runs in the family like diarrhea. How anybody can take this latest eruption from the dwarf kingdom serously is beyond me. I can’t wait until the much respected and elegant John Kerry (Viet Nam veteran) treats with him. North Korea is sort of like Disney World with guns. Would you enter into serious discussions with Mickey Mouse? Probably Joe Biden would.
Damn, could they at least stop dressing like Dr. Evil and Mini Me… no, wait, maybe they should.
The world would be best served by letting the North Koreans starve to death. Just a thought.
The world would be best served by letting the North Koreans starve to death.
I might buy that if the North Koreans had chosen (and continuously re-elected) its leaders in free and fair democratic elections. But the fact is that none of its post World War II leaders were democratically elected. The people of North Korea are, by far, the biggest victims of those same leaders. It would make much more sense to me for the North Koreans to depose the current leadership that to simply kill all the North Koreans. Overthrowing the existing regime and replacing it with a more humane and democratic one – it’s hard to think of a regime that wouldn’t be both! – would serve the world uch better than killing millions of North Koreans who have done us no harm.
Nice thought, but thoroughly impractical. Pie in the sky. Never happen. I still opt for mass starvation. Consider it tough love. Oh well.
How much of the food aid gets to the starving peasants and how much of it gets routed to the military and the splendidly costumed actors in the various extravaganzas? I have no authoritative source, but suspect that very little gets to the starving peasants.
I don’t want to see the peasants starve — they exist in a hellhole we can’t imagine. However, it seems likely that only they will be able to change their situation for the better, and that to prop up the government with food aid or anything else does them a disservice.
Look at it this way. If we let the North Koreans starve to death, that will decrease their carbon footprint, retarding global warming (oh, oh, I mean global climate change) That’s a positive. We must allow practical considerations to overcome sentimentality.
According to this article, the South Korean Government has postponed the authorization to transport 602 tons of flood-aid rice from South Gyeongsang to North Korea.The article also notes,
With an estimated North Korean population of 24,123,827, that comes to up to 83 pounds of rice per capita. The article does not indicate over what period of time “up to 1 million tons of rice” were saved for the military. However, they and the many performers at public festivals do not appear to be malnourished and it would probably not be far off to suggest that more than a little food aid gets to them rather than to the presumably intended recipients.
I wonder how many nuts that little chipmunk can hold in his chubby cheeks?
If I were the “chubby leader” I would head for the hills with my swiss bank account. This guy is as good as dead. When Dear Leader kicks the bucket there will be a coup.