North Korea Un-Curtains the Next Kim: Kim Jong-un

Posted by Abdullah Mahmood on December 24, 2010 with No comments

North Korea Un-Curtains the Next Kim: Kim Jong-un


Korea was split into two parts at the end of World War II with the Soviet Union placing leadership in the North and the Americans placing their leadership in South Korea. The leader of North Korea Kim II Sung launched and invasion with his Soviet equipped army to unify the peninsula under his rule but he failed to succeed.

United Nations helped the South Koreans to counter attack into North Korea and from that onwards the Korean peninsula has remained divided to this very day. North Korea has most of the industrial and natural resources and was successful in rebuilding itself back. The cold war between north and south still persists and seems to go on for ever.

Kim II Jong the son of Kim II Sung and was chosen the eternal president after his father’s death. The guiding policy of the father was self reliance while the son’s was military first. Kim II Jong lacks his father’s charisma and the only time that he spoke in public was to praise the army. But one thing is for sure that Kim II Jong has inherited his fathers near like god status and his cult too but recently his health has been depleting as he has suffered a stroke.

Just like his father Kim II Jong didn’t even try to launch the China styled economic reforms as he felt that it would show disrespect to his father’s legacy. The anti Japanese strategies and the Korean War explains why the Korean state links to resources for it military.

The common Koreans are said to live in destitute conditions while a huge part of the population relies on State asset striping’s, Hoarding and trading. The dwindling Korean economy in this part is known as the Black Hole because of the immense power shortage. North Korea was known to be a heavy industrialized nation but due to power shortages and heavy under investments most of its economy has been doomed.

The future of this country is really unpredictable and bleak today as there is unrest among the locals and recent years botched currency revelation has also been leaked. After this entire downfall are the Koreans ready for a third generation of Kim rule? This sure is a question that lurks in our mind but it is for the Koreans to decide if the next Kim successor Kim Jong Un would be as powerful as his father and grandfather were or would he be the puppet of the military figure. These are unanswered question and time will only tell what the future has in store for the North Koreans.

The author is an associate at IslamTribune.com a US based Online News Magazine, capturing different perspectives of people and their view on News around the world. For more detailed insights on US and the Middle East News visit the website.