More Dead Than Alive?

Kim Jong-il, the “Dear Leader” of North Korea has since recently been hunted by media. Since August 2008, when he stopped appear on public, several foreign experts have stated that he may be seriously sick, or even dead. These assumptions have consolidated when the “Dear Leader” didn’t show upp on several important national holidays during fall. But since October 4, 2008 the North Korean media has been supplying the international audience with messages about the public activity of Kim Jong-il.

Messages about Kim Jong-il visiting a zoo, a soccer-match, a library, and other places have appeared regurarly. But most experts don’t believe them – for example, the South Korean intelligence serivce has confirmed about the Kim Jong-il’s serious illness. Some have gone farther: professor Toshimitsu Shigemura, a Japanese expert on North Korea, had recently published a book, that states that the “Dear Leader” has died in 2003, and his doublegangers are playing his roles on public activities.

But then, why did he disappear only this fall? Did all of his doubles go on vacation at the same time, or start a general strike for improvements in work-conditions? Probably not. But still, the theory that the Korean ruler isn’t ruling his country anymore didn’t come from thin air.

North Korea is considered the contry with the most strict communistic regime – China, compared to North Korea could be seen as relatively liberal. The censure is expanded to all possible and impossible places: the tourists must have special guides “attached” to them, so they wouldn’t see what shouldn’t be seen. Of course, there is something to hide, otherwise, that would have been an unneeded step.

The same situation is happening now within the North Korean government. Because Kim Jong-il didn’t (or just hasn’t?) yet deterined a sucessor, the government is afraid of an internal conflict, that would cost may of them their high place in society, or even head.

So who knows, maybe we will hear from Kim Jong-il for another century, as the ultimate “Dear Leader” that is the head of North Korea not only for lifetime, but also posthumous?