Kim Jong-il: Beware the Wounded Bear

The rumors of Kim Jong-il's demise last year were premature. All the same Kim is not looking the best these days having survived an illness that has left him gaunt and fragile.

As the supreme leader of North Korea, Jong-il has made his presence known by repeatedly and, some would say childishly, stomping his feet militarily whenever the world ignored his wishes. It is a predictable pattern that until now disappears when the world provides his need, be that fuel oil or French wine, of which he is reportedly fond.

Jong-il leads a secular godless nation where he and his father are regarded as deities. North Korea is a political dinosaur that has survived in isolation after the end of the cold war. Even its northern neighbor China has disappeared into the distance economically and politically leaving this inert, oppressive system intact and unchanged; it's people broke and hungry.

Jong-il knows that his personal end is near. He's dying and is reportedly grooming one of his sons as a successor. However for a leader of such power, succession is not important. He lives in his father's shadow and needs a legacy. To that end he may want to bring his country with him when he dies - such is his long history of selfish unconscionable behavior exemplified by starving his people to achieve military and economic aims. So what kind of man are we dealing with?

According to a Washington Post article on May 11, 2003 (link below) - Jerrold Post, the GWU professor and former CIA psychiatrist, believes that the Dear Leader has a serious mental illness. "He has the core characteristics of the most dangerous personality disorder, malignant narcissism," Post theorized in a recent psychological profile. The disorder is characterized by self-absorption, an inability to empathize, a lack of conscience, paranoia and "unconstrained aggression." The Dear Leader, Post concluded, "will use whatever aggression is necessary, without qualm of conscience, be it to eliminate an individual or to strike out at a particular group."

I hope that our own Dear Leaders have read the same article.

We should be aware that Jong-il may well be seeking an excuse to launch a war with South Korea and the US. Already he is talking about defending his country against US aggression. He is warning that an increase in troops or anything that would ramp up the readiness of South Korea would be seen as such.

Make no mistake, Jong-il wants this aggression; he needs it to fulfill what has to have been a very disappointing - if pleasure filled - life lived as the pariah of the Western world and of the former communist countries of late. He is a man with nothing to lose.

In looking for his legacy we need to make sure that we don't provide him with one. This wounded bear is far more dangerous with a glass of Chardonnay in one hand and the other gently caressing the nuclear launch button.

Reference:
Washington Post/Sins of the Son
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A40505-2003May10?language=printer.