The leader rises, but the country falls
Janes reports that North Korea is in a bad way -- in a really bad way -- bad even by its own abysmal standards. "Kim Jong-Il's regime could collapse within six months, bringing chaos to North Korea, observers and intelligence sources in Asia have told Jane's. ... The centrally controlled economy has also now ceased to function and the food distribution system is near breaking point. With loyalty to the regime at an all-time low, another sign of trouble is the regime's diminishing ability to prevent people from leaving the country." But the most alarming sign involves Kim Jong-Il himself.
"Tellingly, the 'Dear Leader' is in the process of moving financial resources to ensure that his assets are portable should he have to go into exile, according to some sources." Kim, who amended the North Korean constitution in 1996 to declare himself "president for eternity" is estimated by the CIA to have "$5 billion in Swiss bank accounts, six villas in Europe, one in Russia and one in China".
He should be near the top of the league of billionaire progressive socialist leaders, fearlessly leading their masses to the worker's parodies. By comparison, Robert Mugabe has an unspecified amount of money in "the British Virgin Islands and the Isle of Man. He also owns large properties in Britain" according to Robert Rotberg of the Harvard Kennedy School. Fidel Castro may in fact be bringing up the rear of this august group, with an estimated worth of $900 million, according to a Forbes magazine report, which only puts him on par with the Queen of England.
posted by Wretchard at 1/24/2008 08:18:00 PM
fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com
North of the border
Neil Gadling gives a virtual tour of North Korea. It starts in just that way that would be familiar to those who gone to places, here unnamed, with a similar reputation. "I had flown in on a Russian Tupolev jet from Shenyang, China on a very low trajectory that never took us above the cloud layer. The countryside below was gray, misty, and depressing--just as I had always imagined it would be--and occasionally intersected by random dirt roads with hardly any vehicles on them."
And later ...
There is no such thing as the internet in North Korea or cell phones. Anyone entering the country had to leave their cell phones with customs officials who kept them locked up and inaccessible for the entirety of our stay. And I certainly didn't get a copy of USA Today under my hotel room door.
Surprisingly, being cut off from the outside world was actually somewhat enjoyable for the five days I spent in North Korea. I quite liked the freedom of not being tied to my cell phone and email and relished in the ignorant bliss of not being exposed to troubling international news. This isolationist cocoon where the state controls everything you hear and see, however, would not have been fun for too long. Living an entire life under such conditions would be hell.
Read the whole thing.
fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com
gadling.com |
