I don’t know any better than you do whether Kim Jong-un, the dictator of North Korea, is alive or dead. I think better Korea-watchers than myself would agree that it is hard to assign any weight to Pyongyang-ological “reports” in the Japanese or even the South Korean media.
The Daily NK, a South Korean newspaper that specializes in news of the north, is featuring an interesting version of the KJU rumours. The paper testifies that the Supreme Leader has, in fact, received heart surgery at a remote hospital in scenic Hyangsan County. The facility was allegedly constructed near Kim Il-sung’s dacha after he had a heart attack there in 1994 and died when poor weather prevented a helicopter evacuation. According to the Daily, the hospital is now more or less reserved for the use of the patently unhealthy Marshal Kim.
But if his absence from major state events does imply that he is an ex-parrot, there would be something strangely appropriate about it happening in a time of radical global uncertainty about the immediate future. It’s the most basic question about North Korea, and it defies answering in a particularly maddening way: for just how many generations can they keep doing this?
Dictators of the left and right often succeed in handing power over to a son, but this is a difficult thing to pull off. If the inner party or the army detects this kind of dynastic tendency early enough, both father and son are likely to end up dead or exiled. Sometimes the kid succeeds to nominal power, but turns out to be a dud and is allowed to recede into obscurity, like Oliver Cromwell’s child “Tumbledown Dick” or Gen. Rafael Trujillo’s fun-loving son Ramfis.
In rare cases, Syria’s Assad family being a notorious one, the son inherits some of the cunning and ability of the parent. But even in imperial Rome, it was rare for such a biological succession to reach a third generation. Let alone a fourth.
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See Also:
(1) Kim Jong-un: Who might lead N Korea without Kim?
(2) Trump says he has a “good idea” about Kim Jong Un’s health, but can’t say more
