Kim is, essentially, a God-King. His every whim is law. He can do whatever he wants to whomever he wants in North Korea and never ever suffer punishment for it. He has absolute power over everyone in North Korea, and he was raised to believe he was entitled to it. That’s a pretty powerful mindset.
He can treat his own people like that because they are, essentially, his property to what he wants with.
Same shit different leader.
I doubt it. The current Kim has a record of killing off anyone with even a whiff of being competition to his position. Even who takes over when the Current Leader dies is not certain - it’s nothing so clear-cut as “eldest son”.
Probably not. Well, the details of the aftermath would differ, but I think you’d still wind up with a totalitarian state.
Thanks- I always wondered if his closest underlings were onboard with what he did and would relish continuing it, or if they know he’s insane, go along with it to stay alive and are more than ready to “tear down the wall” if he died.
No reason to oppose the system for most of the ones at the top - even the ones who may be purged on a whim. Like most political systems, there are still haves and have-nots. It’s abjectly terrible for the vast majority, but pretty good for a tiny minority.
And that small elite cadre at the top have a lot to lose. As terrible as it is to be at the bottom, at the top they have every incentive to keep things the same and would stand to lose a lot if the NK government collapsed.
It’s easy to forget that while the good old DPRK economy is… less than optimal now, it beat South Korea’s until the 1970s-1980s. Just goes to illustrate the potential catastrophic consequences on a national level of incompetent leadership.
I would imagine that, no matter how absolute his power may be, someone like Kim is perfectly aware of the Sword of Damocles hanging over his head 24/7. All it takes is one assassin’s bullet. So he can’t completely disregard people’s opinions. Trod on the helpless? Sure, but he pisses off various military or governmental factions at his own peril.
Unfortunately, there are people within North Korea who would not consider Kim a hero for doing this, and all it takes, again, is one assassin.
Well, let’s see…
He had the Vice Minister of the Army executed by mortar fire in 2012.
In 2013 the Vice Chairman of the National Defense Commission was executed. This was current Kim’s uncle, Jang Song-thaek, and he was as close to a designated second in command as North Korea gets. In addition, his sister, her husband, a nephew, and the nephew’s sons have been executed as well, apparently just for being relations of Jang Song-thaek
In 2014 the Deputy Security Minister was executed - reportedly by flamethrower
In 2014 the Minister of People’s Armed Forces was executed.
In 2017 the current Kim’s half-brother was assassinated by VX nerve poison (he was the eldest son of the prior leader, illustrating that succession is not necessarily by oldest son).
Somehow, I don’t think Kim is the one feeling nervous here…
Just out of curiosity, who would take over if Kim suddenly keeled over?
So who would decide who takes over?
Froma a book called Nothing to Envy. The “dog food” was just white rice with meat. Another example in the book is a soldier being awed by fingernail clippers. (While searching for a link on that, I found that nail clippers have been banned from import into NK, and figured that Kim did it because of the book. But nope, it was the “good guys.”)
And… so?
That’s still a better meal than millions of North Koreans get on an average day. And someone was feeding it to his dog.
Nobody knows, probably including Kim. He tends to kill people who might become his rival, and AFAIK he has no son or heir.
I heard it mentioned on the radio the other day that his health might not be good. He is quite obese, and disappeared some time back for six weeks and reappeared walking with a cane.
That’s another scenario that does not bode well - Kim dies, and his generals and hangers-on begin a power struggle. One would hope that China and/or South Korea and/or the US has better sense than to get involved in a NK civil war.
Regards,
Shodan
“And so” because the original anecdote makes it sound like he was blown away at a bowl full of Purina. “Food is so plentiful outside of NK that we can give people food to dogs,” is a very different narrative than, “Food in NK is so rare that they think dog food is people food.”
First of all - the doctor was a female
Second - even in the US it used to be quite common to feed dogs entirely with scraps of people food (aside from what the dogs could also scavenge). Prepared stuff like Purina products are pretty much post-WWII western world.
Having actually read the book from which the anecdote comes, in the original it was pretty damn clear what it was, and while the doctor was blown away by it when she figured out the food was intended for a dog rather than a person.
Awesome. Thanks for sharing.
After reading quite a bit about domestic conditions in North Korea, I do think it’s the most regimented, most totalitarian regime in history. It must also rank as the most stable totalitarian regime in history; it’s been around since 1948, with relatively little change. And the cult of personality around Kim Il Sung is arguably the most extreme.
That said, the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia (Kampuchea) changed society more radically. They expelled everyone from the cities en masse and sent them to work in the fields. They eliminated the postal service. They eliminated the judicial system. They eliminated money [!]. That regime lasted for just four years.
From what I know, many people in top positions in North Korea know their system is evil, unproductive and unsustainable.
But the options are to either keep the perks of being in charge or be tortured to death in a revolution. This causes the top echelons of leaders to fight to maintain the system.
If kim Jong Un dies, the system will continue as is I’m sure.
In dictatorships a coup is hard. All branches of the secret police, military and intelligence spy on each other. Getting a unified military coup is not easy.
The last person standing after killing all of those who were in a position to oppose him would decide. If Kim died it would be the night of long knives on steroids.