The designated heir Kim Jong-un is only 27 or 28. Maybe he’ll make NK a hipper, swinginger nation! 
Or at least that will be the plot of a Sasha Baron Cohen film one day . . .
Which will be replaced by what?
BBC is now reporting he died on a train that was heading out of the country.
Suggest Mongolian Cluster Merge. (Which you can probably get in Bangkok for $5.95.)
It may finally lead to the reunifcation of the Korean people.
I said in jest when Gadaffi died that Kim Jong-Il would be gone by Christmas, never in my wildest dreams did I believe this could happen…
Special price for you, farang! 
I don’t blame you one little bit 
Forgive my potentially trite analysis, but will this make any difference at all? I always thought that Jong-Il was purely a projection of the regime behind him (and not a very good one at that). Presumably Jong-Un will be the same, with no change in policy. Or did he actually have influence?
Year of miracles, this is.
Which North Korean political faction supports reunification?
Threads were merged together.
Oh good, finally an end to bizarre posturing and unpredictable behavior by the North Korean government.
I hope the rest of his criminal regime joins him. Good riddance.
What did you have against Vaclav Havel?
He certainly had influence and power personally. He wasn’t a puppet; he had a huge cult of personality.
I’m hoping the best for North Koreans. The stories coming out have been so terrible and sad, and I hope that there’s now some change. I’m sure it will be painful for them either way but we know so little about the son – perhaps he won’t be like his father, or perhaps he won’t be able to take (or keep) power at all and there will be a change.
I don’t have much to say but I wish the best for the people of North Korea. Hopefully his son isn’t as crazy as he was.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/18/world/asia/north-korea-leader-dead/?hpt=hp_t1
updates from on the ground please when you have time.
Best case, it’ll go the route of East Germany, to be grudgingly absorbed by its wealthier sibling.
Worst case, it’s the new Somalia.
The one doesn’t follow from the other though. You can have a cult of personality without any substance.
Agreed.