Kim Jung Il is dead....

[tight360]

S.Korea is now alerting it's military to stand to.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-1...nhap-says.html

[PathfinderSGT]

bad news for asian elvis impersonators everywhere. still, i'm very glad to be rid of him...maybe north korea will finally pull its head out of its fourth point of contact and move with great trepidation into the 21st century. just hope that kim jong-un has more common sense then his father or grandfather.

not holding my breath, though.

[Elizatbet]

I was shock to here the news by a neighbour right now.

Just wondering what is going to happend to the country do.

[bergall]

I'm going to venture to say that Kim Jung Un will be just like Jim Jung Il, or else he'd not be designated as the successor. More to the point, the military of N.Korea is as hard-line as Kim Jung Mentally-Il so if 'the successor' is a closet progressive and attempts to bring N.Korea into the 21st century, he will meet with dire misfortune and be replaced by someone who will keep the 'status quo'.

[Champlain Islander]

Not sure if the son could be any worse than his wacco father.

[bergall]

Originally Posted by Champlain Islander

Not sure if the son could be any worse than his wacco father.

maybe not...but he'll not be any better, either. So we can look forward to, what ? 60 years or so of more azz-clownery from N.Korea (given the age of 'the Great Successor').

[Champlain Islander]

From some stuff I have read he was schooled in Switzerland for a time and has done some traveling outside NK. Who knows if he can maintain the military power base he might try to move them into a modern world society.

[bergall]

Originally Posted by Champlain Islander

From some stuff I have read he was schooled in Switzerland for a time and has done some traveling outside NK. Who knows if he can maintain the military power base he might try to move them into a modern world society.

You can look at that positively, or negatively. On 'The Dark Side', you can say he is familiar with the Western "mind" and might use that to his advantage as they are a freakin' mystery to most of the west. ANd then again, there's the issue of his being removed by the hard-line military if he gets too 'progressive'.

[Champlain Islander]

I wonder who the old leader really was... Kimmi or the military. Hard to say who really pulled the strings. Rumor has it that the kid is a big drinker. You would think that the way South Korea has prospered the North would want some too.

[bergall]

Originally Posted by Champlain Islander

I wonder who the old leader really was... Kimmi or the military. Hard to say who really pulled the strings. Rumor has it that the kid is a big drinker. You would think that the way South Korea has prospered the North would want some too.

It is my understanding that being despots, there is a huge disconnect between 'them whut counts' and 'them whut don't'.
I believe that while the rest of the country starves on $2-$5 a MONTH (U.S. dollars), the ruling class and the military eats quite regularly. No telling who is issuing the marching orders, it does not really matter either way as ruling class and military class appear to be goose-stepping in lockstep.