Kim-Jong Il --Dead at 70

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patentesq

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The world just got a bit safer.

Kim Jong Il, North Korea’s ‘Dear Leader’ Dictator, Dead at 70

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By Bill Austin - Dec 18, 2011 10:04 PM ET North Korea's Leader Kim Jong-Il

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Dmitry Astakhov/AFP/Getty Images

Kim Jong-Il, North Korean leader.



Kim Jong-Il, North Korean leader. Photographer: Dmitry Astakhov/AFP/Getty Images



Kim Jong Il, the second-generation North Korean dictator who defied global condemnation to build nuclear weapons while his people starved, has died, Yonhap News reported. He was 70.
The news came in a radio broadcast at noon local time, Yonhap reported, citing North Korea’s official media. Kim probably had a stroke in August 2008 and may have also contracted pancreatic cancer, according to South Korean news reports.
The son of Kim Il Sung, North Korea’s founder, Kim was a chain-smoking recluse who ruled for 17 years after coming to power in July 1994 and resisted opening up to the outside world in order to protect his regime. The potential succession of his little-known third son, Kim Jong Un, threatens to trigger a dangerous period for the Korean peninsula, where 1.7 million troops from the two Koreas and the U.S. square off every day.
“Kim Jong Il inherited a genius for playing the weak hand and by keeping the major powers nervous, continuing his father’s tradition of turning Korea’s history of subservience on its head,” said Michael Breen, the Seoul-based author of“Kim Jong Il: North Korea’s Dear Leader,” a biography. “We have entered an uncertain moment with North Korea.”
Lampooned by foreign cartoonists and filmmakers for his weight, his zippered jumpsuits, his aviator sunglasses and his bouffant hairdo, Kim cut a more serious figure in his rare dealings with world leaders outside the Communist bloc.
Words for Albright

“If there’s no confrontation, there’s no significance to weapons,” he told Madeleine Albright, then U.S. secretary of state, in a 2000 meeting in Pyongyang.
Those words took on greater significance in 2009 as Kim defied threats of United Nations sanctions to test a second nuclear device and a ballistic missile, technically capable of striking Alaska.
The following year North Korea lashed out militarily, prompting stern warnings from the U.S. and South Korea. An international investigation blamed Kim’s regime for the March 2010 sinking of the South Korean naval vessel Cheonan that killed 46 sailors.
Eight months later North Korea shelled a South Korean island, killing two soldiers, two civilians and setting homes ablaze. The act followed reports by an American scientist that the country had made “stunning” advances to its uranium-enrichment program.
To contact the reporter on this story:Bill Austin in Tokyo at billaustin@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Charles W. Stevens at cstevens@bloomberg.net
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It's weird how he died immediately after North Korea inked a deal with the U.S. over uranium.

Looks like his successor will be his son, Kim Jon-un. This kid must be incredibly, extremely good, because he became a 4-star General at the age of 27!!!!!!!

http://www.cnbc.com/id/45719911

To those of you on active duty in the U.S. military who are over the age of 27 and haven't yet received your 4th star, you need to pick up the pace!
 
May he enjoy his eternity in Hell. He and his father before him were responsible for the death of millions and the imprisonment of an entire nation.
 
patentesq said:
It's weird how he died immediately after North Korea inked a deal with the U.S. over uranium.

Looks like his successor will be his son, Kim Jon-un. This kid must be incredibly, extremely good, because he became a 4-star General at the age of 27!!!!!!!

http://www.cnbc.com/id/45719911

To those of you on active duty in the U.S. military who are over the age of 27 and haven't yet received your 4th star, you need to pick up the pace!
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How can anyone compete with such an incredibly fit man such as him? I'm sure he earned those 4-stars through hard work and determination :rolleyes:
 
I and a bunch of other Koreans (South of course) found out about this last night during a Christmas party. To be frank, nobody was happy. Although Kim Jong-Il died, many of us believed his son is even more crazy (I guess they just get weirder with every generation). My fellow church members were even more scared about his rule than they were about his father's. Some even openly expressed opinions about another war.

To give you their perspective of the recent events, they think that Kim Jong-Un was the one responsible for the missile launching on a South Korean island. It is believed that he did so to demonstrate his power as he gains influence.

It's incredibly sad to talk about North Korea. Many people talk about how countries such as the U.S. sends aid to the Communist country, but the only ones who receive it there are the military and the elite class. Most of the commoners are periodically starving, and witnesses who managed to escape to South Korea report that there are instances when people die from starvation and their family cuts them up and sells them as cow meat out of desperation for food.
 
kbaek (or anyone who might render a guess), two questions:

1. Do you think young Kim Jong-un has to introduce more drama on the world scene (i.e., in terms of more muscle flexing against the South) to gain the respect of the elder generals? My guess is yes. Or will we see an internal power struggle and the North implode?

2. Do you foresee North and South Korea ever re-uniting? (the last time something like this happened, everyone expected Gorbachev to block the reunification aspirations between East and West Germany, and I'm curious where you think China stands). My guess is that China won't permit this to happen.

Just curious to hear from someone who knows much more than I do about this subject.
 
bruno said:
Suffice it to say that anything that anyone "knows" about North Korea is pretty speculative. But- here is a pretty good analysis from the BBC : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16243948
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Fascinating read, bruno. Thank you for sharing.

I'm not sure whether you saw this report on CNBC, but the Pentagon -- as luck would have it -- apparently selected regime change in North Korea as its training exercise last week. http://www.cnbc.com/id/45728428 Sure is comforting to know that we've got some very smart folks in the Pentagon planning for the contingency that this young kid will not be able to consolidate his father's power and all heck breaks loose.
 
patentesq said:
kbaek (or anyone who might render a guess), two questions:

1. Do you think young Kim Jong-un has to introduce more drama on the world scene (i.e., in terms of more muscle flexing against the South) to gain the respect of the elder generals? My guess is yes. Or will we see an internal power struggle and the North implode?

2. Do you foresee North and South Korea ever re-uniting? (the last time something like this happened, everyone expected Gorbachev to block the reunification aspirations between East and West Germany, and I'm curious where you think China stands). My guess is that China won't permit this to happen.

Just curious to hear from someone who knows much more than I do about this subject.
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1. Anything is speculation as no good intelligence on the internal power structure of NK. The most reliable source is a very high ranking defector that defected about 10 plus years ago or more. But since so much time has passed, his knowledge might not be so relevent now. No need to gain respect when selective purging does the same thing. That's what Kim Jong Il did.

2. Scenarios for Korea's future

a. Status quo - after 1994 with Kim Il Song's death and famines in 90s, so called experts all predicted implosion of NK. Its 2011 now

b. War - as time passes on any military advantage NK might had is eroding. There is no substitute flying hours for pilots, 60s and 70s technology equipment, and etc to make up for what SK has. Not likely

c. Peaceful unification - if the faction that wants it wins the power struggle

c. Collapse of NK - certain parts of NK are reportly to have no functioning government. This is really big as in NK, the government is everything.

China wants status quo - simply it does not want a united Korea. The potential is significant as to a unifed Korea with South Korea's economy, North Korea's natural resources, and North Korea's nuclear weapon will make the unified Korea a regional power. Japan and Russia feels about the same. This is why China has been supporting NK. South Korea also doesn't want unifed Korea. Simply, South Korea cannot afford to pay for the unification. There has been a shift in the public opinion. The older generation wants unification, whereas the younger generation does not. Now, there are more of younger generation. Before Bush Jr, South Korea and US provided very significant assistance to NK - a part appeasement and part status quo.

We will just have to wait and see.
 
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That was a very interesting response, MemberLG. Thank you. I hadn't through the implications of a nuclear united Korea and its impact on the region. Perhaps that could be handled in other ways that would benefit everyone (like policing up the nuclear materials and forbidding Korea from gaining access).

I could also see that China would benefit more from an even larger trading partner than having to support North Korea year after year, particularly if China crashes economically as some are predicting. It might even provide more stability than what we have now. Nevertheless, status quo seems like the most logical result as of this writing, with some speed bumps along the way
 
Satellites document North Korea's dark ages

This iconic "Earth at Night" picture is based on data gathered by military satellites in 1994-1995, just after Kim inherited power from his late father, Kim Il Sung. The darkness shows how much North Korea has lagged behind its neighbors — South Korea, China, Russia and Japan — in electrification and industrial development. Updates of the data sets show that there's been no change in North Korea's city-light situation between 1992 and 2009.
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111219-holiday-korea1-120p.photoblog900.jpg
 
patentesq said:
That was a very interesting response, MemberLG. Thank you. I hadn't through the implications of a nuclear united Korea and its impact on the region. Perhaps that could be handled in other ways that would benefit everyone (like policing up the nuclear materials and forbidding Korea from gaining access).

I could also see that China would benefit more from an even larger trading partner than having to support North Korea year after year, particularly if China crashes economically as some are predicting. It might even provide more stability than what we have now. Nevertheless, status quo seems like the most logical result as of this writing, with some speed bumps along the way
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A theory about why NK developed its nuclear capability. There are many Koreans living in Japan, some witnessed the aftermath of nuclear attacks against Japan at the end fo WWII than went back to North Korea. Only good deterent to nuclear weapon is another nuclear weapon. Initially USSR supported NK effort to developy its own nuclear capability than stopped. China provided some assistance than stopped. The elder Kim was real good about playing USSR aginst Chinese to get what he wants. But when both stopped providing nuclear assistance, he realized that certain things he need to go ahead on his own. I don't know if anyone knew about this or not, but South Korea had its own active nuclear weapons development program before the US "stopped" it. Again, for South Korea's perpsective, can she rely on U.S. nuclear protection forever?

So if we assume a Korean unification under South Korea's lead, why should South Korea give up the nuclear capability? For world peace, if so than should all other nuclear powers give up their nuclear weapons also.

Trading partner wise, I don't think United Korea doesn't change the equation. As it is China is providing aid to North Korea and South Korea passed North Korea as a bigger trading partner to China a long time ago.
 
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