December 18, 2011, De mortus nil nisi bonum... as if!
Given the circumstances (how insanely secretive North Korea is... and, indeed, just insane ) I'll just say "it is being widely reported" that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is dead at age 69. It seems we're packing our notable end of the year deaths in quickly ... what with Vaclav Havel, and Christopher Hitchens, and now... Kim Jong Il. And we've got just about two weeks left!
Well then. "Dear Leader" Kim, inheriting absolute dictatorial power from his father, "Great Leader" Kim Il Sung, now passes autocratic power on to his 20-something third, and youngest son, Kim Jong Un, who will get to administer one of Earth's most unpleasant places. While most of his people starved and/or languished in gulags, Kim Jong Il loved expensive cigars and cognac and, I understand, kidnapped Northern European women for his sexual amusement... "Club Med for Dictators" was made for him. Little is yet known of North Korea's "New Leader."
The younger Kim gets to continue his nation's legacy of miserable poverty, upped by nuclear weapons developed on his father's watch. A proud charter member of the Axis of Evil (ironically, legacy hire Kim Jong Il was so designated by American legacy hire George W. Bush!), Kim's North Korea often launched little attacks at South Korea, and launched missiles in all provocative directions. It's hard to believe that North Korea could cause more trouble with Kim Jong Il gone... but, hey, be careful what you wish for I suppose.
Famously foul-mouthed, perhaps only Newt Gingrich could match the combination of both public and private disagreeableness embodied by Kim Jong Il. I might say "rest in peace" or something... but in Kim Jong Il's case, I'll just hope that someone really competent has checked his vital signs to make sure he's actually dead.