Josh Keating is a little bearish on Kim Jong Un (Il’s presumed successor).
During his time in the North Korean government, he’s been personally linked to two disastrous initiatives — a 2009 currency reevalution that wiped out the life savings of many North Korean citizens and led to rare protests, and a 2010 artillery assault on a South Korean military installation.
According to official propaganda, he is “a military talent who has genius wisdom and policy” and “resembles our great general (Kim Jong Il) so much in appearance.” His official nickname is “Brilliant Comrade”. (His father was “Dear Leader” and his grandfather was “Great Leader.”
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If I hadn’t named my blog “The Happy Hermit” already, I would call it “The Brilliant Blogger” in reverence to the “Brilliant Comrade”.
The currency crisis was unbelievably stupid. There was a great New Yorker article on it – http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/07/12/100712fa_fact_demick
Odd country, that’s for sure.
PS I preferred ‘The Kim is dead. Long live the Kim’