Is there any way his death could lead to a smoother or quicker re-unification? With the sane folks currently in South Korea in charge, of course.
There is a lot of conventional artillery pointed directly towards Seoul, the economic, social, and political capitol of South Korea. Really, losing Seoul would not be worth putting a pro-Western democracy in place up North. It would be something like, the US agreeing to get New York and Washington nuked in order to end communism during the height of the Cold War.
Pssssst… I’m pretty sure it was a Seoul/soul suicide joke.
And in related news: The world mourns on the anniversary of his father’s death.
Nice analysis on the secession here.
**"The OSC report is a virtuoso piece of analysis that includes rich detail on the three generations of Kims, the development of the unfolding information campaign on leadership succession, and background on the little-known Kim Cho’ng-un. It even presents ‘an OSC-generated age-progression photo’ that extrapolates from the only available photograph of the younger Kim, taken at age 10, to show what he may look like now at age 26. And it shows an amazing familiarity with obscure facets of North Korea’s notoriously secretive society.
“Thus, it finds a possibly significant allusion to Kim Cho’ng-un, who is his father’s third-born son, in the recent broadcast of ‘a children’s program entitled Good Heart of the Third Child, which emphasized the moral virtue of the youngest of three brothers in his adherence to socialist principles.’ This is something of a departure from the Confucian tradition which favors the eldest son, the OSC explains.”**
I doubt it, unless his son is really different than we are expecting.
N. Korea needs what China got when Mao died. They need some people NOT related to the former leader to come in and gradually clean up the mess. They need someone like Deng Xiaoping, who actually had traveled to other countries and was less xenophobic.
Basically, they need Kim’s son to be killed and overthrown in a coup, which is unlikely.
Even then, it’d be hard to picture a reunification. 
Right now the poverty and culture shock would be too much to overcome with sudden reunification. The only real hope is that his son is able to convince the rest of those crazy fuckers to start a REAL loosening up and decrazification program to get the country better prepared for re-joining the real world and eventual unification.
Very interesting stuff. (If I may nitpick, you mean succession, not secession.) I wonder how much of their own bullshit the NK leadership believes.
Of course. Thanks. That’s what happens when I’m in a bit of a hurry.
I’ve mentioned elsewhere on the Board that a Thai colleague of the wife’s travelled to North Korea in I think it was January as part of a UN census team. She spent a lot of time in a rural area and said the people she herself saw did not look all that bad off. Said she was not restricted in her movements. Of course, she did not go all over the country, but rather stuck to the section she was to cover, but the whole country was covered by the team. (And of course, I’m not trying to pooh-pooh the plight there; just one person’s experience in one small area.)
If things were to happen that way, as a RoK artilleryman on the North/South Korean border, it would probably mean instant death for me. And of course all my family in Seoul too. Or better yet a long and painful death by chemical weapons. Realistically, the best case scenario from what I hear is to fire our guns at least once at their frontline before we die.
Maybe I should refit my gas mask once I get back to base…
(Note: I’m using one of my precious precious leaves right now so I probably won’t ever reply to anything. No internet at base.)
I have been tallying things up and I think you have not only won this thread but also the neighboring four threads even if you haven’t read them. Check with the Mods for your actual prize package which I am sure includes a luxury car. Thanks.
Hey, I’m 26! What country do I get to be dictator of?
“[D]id not look all that bad off” as in “not starving to death” or as in “free to choose their own government, speak out as they choose, and not be forced to worship their dictator as part of a cult of personality”?
I’m gonna go out on a limb and guess the former.
Yes, the former. She was there to count people, not express righteous indignation regardless of how justified it would have been. The ones she saw looked fairly healthy.
No doubt someone will nitpick that she was not a doctor so how would she know, but I was just saying what someone who was actually there told me she saw with her own eyes as an interesting aside.
Grey, as you are a ROK artilleryman on the border I respect you as a warrior more than my words could express. So I won’t try. It is understood.
aaaand, where did you pick up your English ? I realize that you can’t answer this until you get your next precious leave.
Maybe start a thread. . . .
T. Slothrop