Pardon us, as we mourn the loss of Kim Jong Il. No, we will not be crying like the stagehands apparently running around Pyongyang this week, shedding crocodile tears. Still, when you write a blog that is based on humor, you need an antagonist. If there is nothing to point the shotgun at, why bother firing???
No, this has not been a good year for odd dictators. First, we lost Moammar Qaddafi, now comes the passing of Kim, who apparently had a heart attack on a train two days before anyone was notified. Talk about a closed society... Now it appears we have left is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hugo Chavez. Hopefully, we'll be developing some new crazy/unlethal dictators to keep us busy.
Now, back to North Korea. Kim Jong Il was always good material. He had the look: short, weird hair, eyeglasses, and the ability to play with nuclear arms the way your six year old kid plays with power tools for the first time. Yes, there was a serious side to it, but with Kim, you knew what was coming - a scud flying off into the Sea of Japan every year or so. Unfortunately, there is new leadership, and that leads us to fear of the unknown...
Taking over is Kim Jong Un, Il's 27 year old son. Newly minted as a 4-Star General, Un is inexperienced, unknown, and worst of all, not ready. Word is the recent ballistic missile firing was Un's work, not his father's. North Korea is much a family-owned business. Leadership has been passed down from father to son for three generations now. The difference is Il took over for his Dad at age 52. Un is taking over at barely half that age... And much like the idiot son who gets the keys to the shop, Un is poised to run it into the ground.
This will sound strange, but the best hope for North Korea lies in it's military.... Yep. Power originally stood with the military - like most Communist countries - but Kim Jong Il took power over time back to the politicians. Himself mainly. With Un in his obviously weakest position right now, this would be the time for military leaders - like REAL generals - to depose or set up Un as a puppet. Maybe that would ease tensions between the two Koreas, but we're not secure with either of these scenarios. Maybe China could work a little magic on this, but how much will that help?
We have no crystal ball, so we'll see how it goes. Hopefully it all remains peaceful, but we have our doubts. For now, we'll miss Kim Jong Il, if only for the comedic value alone... Maybe Un will be featured in Team America II: World Police.
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