# North Korea--What happens when Kim is assassinated? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [February 12, 2016, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/north-korea-what-happens-when-kim-is-assassinated/745882 "2016-02-12T01:07:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2016, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/north-korea-what-happens-when-kim-is-assassinated/745882/21 "2016-02-13T04:00:59Z")
Ever see _Weekend at Bernie’s_? ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2016, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/north-korea-what-happens-when-kim-is-assassinated/745882/22 "2016-02-13T04:04:06Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Well, in the USSR, it might have gone smoothly but it didn’t go **well,** did it? It went almost as well as one could possibly hope for. Sure, it had its problems, but there was no war. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2016, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/north-korea-what-happens-when-kim-is-assassinated/745882/23 "2016-02-13T06:20:28Z")
_[The Daily Beast](http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/02/11/north-korea-s-generals-could-turn-against-kim-jong-un.html)_ has a pretty good article about what could happen. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2016, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/north-korea-what-happens-when-kim-is-assassinated/745882/24 "2016-02-13T06:55:58Z")
A military junta. would be the obvious result (presumably led by whoever arranged Kim’s demise). The question would be whether they could keep the whole thing together for any length of time, without it exploding (which would inevitably lead to intervention by China and S Korea). ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2016, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/north-korea-what-happens-when-kim-is-assassinated/745882/25 "2016-02-13T07:06:15Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > Free democratic elections shepherding in a new era of peaceful co-existence with their neighbors to the south. Both Korea’s claim soverignity over the whole Peninsula. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2016, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/north-korea-what-happens-when-kim-is-assassinated/745882/26 "2016-02-13T11:06:46Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > _[The Daily Beast](http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/02/11/north-korea-s-generals-could-turn-against-kim-jong-un.html)_ has a pretty good article about what could happen. That is an interesting article, and sheds some light on Kim’s motivation for the executions. It supports my theory that Kim will be assassinated, but doesn’t hazard a guess as to what happens next. ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2016, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/north-korea-what-happens-when-kim-is-assassinated/745882/27 "2016-02-13T15:59:45Z")
> [@Frank](#): > > When it comes to North Korea, I don’t think any of us have cites. We’re all just going on hunches. > > That said, if the new leader is controlled by China, he will be far friendlier to the West than now. China is fed up with Kim’s attitude to the West. I don’t think the populace wants anything to do with the West, even if China pushes it. They have been feed a propaganda doctrine regarding their great leader and the evils of the West, that they would never trust anyone who opened that door. There’s a video circulating NK showing our homeless sleeping in the street, touting that as the American dream ( a new shopping cart to push). We eat birds if we can find one, and snow because it’s all we have. We shoot children (news accounts of Sandy hook, Columbine etc.) and send our military off to do terrible things to peaceful countries like NK. At least, with Kim, we have an idea what level he functions at. A new leader could be much worse than he is. ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2016, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/north-korea-what-happens-when-kim-is-assassinated/745882/28 "2016-02-13T16:17:10Z")
Here’s a link to the above mentioned video. [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJoQOQHQ8oA) ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2016, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/north-korea-what-happens-when-kim-is-assassinated/745882/29 "2016-02-15T20:28:23Z")
> [@Count\_Blucher](#): > > I think that the analogy which I’d like to use is the one about the person with the gun and the minivan in the ‘War of the Worlds’ remake. > One takes the gun, uses it to get control of the car. Then someone shoots him and gets in the car. Cue a number of gunshots over a 20 minute period until the bullets run out and/or the car is wrecked. > > If Kim is assassinated, I predict a number of assassinations in fairly short order (week/weeks) until the one in power is the one selected, controlled, and backed by Red China. > I honestly don’t expect any leader to arise that is even one half step friendlier to the West than the PRC. The “friendly” ones are the ones being assassinated. It is not lost on some of the North Korean Oligarchs that the Chinese Oligarchs are becoming billionaires as they embrace “capitalism” Kim Jong-Un has an aunt (whose husband was executed) that could take control (her husband probably could have staged a coup if he wasn’t executed). ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2016, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/north-korea-what-happens-when-kim-is-assassinated/745882/30 "2016-02-15T20:43:54Z")
Pretty reasonable to have executed him then. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2016, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/north-korea-what-happens-when-kim-is-assassinated/745882/31 "2016-02-15T21:56:12Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Maybe they could keep Uncle Klaudius around, since nobody takes him seriously. Nice! Senator:There are those who say you cannot hear properly, you cannot speak properly, and that you’ve got no experience of government. Klaudius: And that I am besides half-witted. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/north-korea-what-happens-when-kim-is-assassinated/745882.md?page=1)