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Toppling Kim Jong-Il.

The Times of London has an interesting piece on North Korea, titled "Chairman Kim's dissolving kingdom."

The article, by Michael Sheridan, argues that the North Korean dictator is weak, his power is in jeopardy.

Sheridan:

"We had already witnessed one sign that North Korea’s totalitarian system is dissolving, even as its leaders boast of owning nuclear weapons to deter their enemies.

'It’s just like the Berlin Wall,' Pastor Douglas Shin, a Christian activist, said by telephone from Seoul. 'The slow-motion exodus is the beginning of the end.'

In interviews for this article over many months, western policymakers, Chinese experts, North Korean exiles and human rights activists built up a picture of a tightly knit clan leadership in Pyongyang that is on the verge of collapse.

Some of those interviewed believe the 'Dear Leader', Kim Jong-il, has already lost his personal authority to a clique of generals and party cadres. Without any public announcement, governments from Tokyo to Washington are preparing for a change of regime."

Previously, WILLisms.com noted:

"One disadvantage of a free society in dealing with a dictatorial regime is that time is usually on the dictator's side. The dictator can usually just wait for elections in America before negotiating. Kim Jong-Il, through 2004, believed President Bush might be replaced by Senator Kerry, and accordingly, a strong foreign policy stance toward North Korea replaced with a weaker one.

....

With the election now decided, and President Bush's foreign policy affirmed by more than 62 million voters, a record number for an American election, North Korea has signalled it may be ready to return to the table, under Bush's 6-party terms."

The Sheridan article echoes these sentiments:

"Bush’s re-election dealt a blow to Kim, 62, who had gambled on a win by John Kerry, the Democratic candidate. Kim used a strategy of divide and delay to drag out nuclear talks with the United States, China, Russia, Japan and South Korea through 2004.

Kim lost his bet and now faces four more years of Bush, who says that he 'loathes' the North Korean leader and has vowed to strip him of atomic weapons."

The CIA was surprised by the swift fall of the Soviet Union; North Korea, too, could surprise experts with a sudden regime change, but this remains unlikely due to the intense and ubiquitous brainwashing campaign Kim Jong-Il's regime employs.

Posted by Will Franklin · 31 January 2005 02:59 PM

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