I also very much admired, amid the onslaught of new posts, your sentence: “These are not the biographies of reformers.” Particularly interesting is General O, who is young enough to have engaged in rather a few cross-border shenanigans (I hope I am using that word correctly) back before Eisenhower was President.

http://www.asianews.it/news-en/In-Pyongyang,-people-cry-for-food,-not-Kim-23492.html

http://www.persecutionblog.com/2011/12/how-will-the-death-of-kim-jong-il-affect-christians-in-north-korea.html

Cynically, that might be regarded as a win win for almost everybody. The north koreans get some improvements in living standards, the PRC gets some raw materials and markets and South Korea does not have to deal with the north antics or the prospect of a sudden reunification. Obviously it would have to be an informal takeover to work, not an Anschluss proper, korean nationalism seems just too strong for that.
As far as I have read the majority of south korean have little enthusiasm for short term unification and those who still do it is because they are not aware of the rather unpleasant socio-economic issues it would raise; everything seem to point in the direction of it turning into a giant mess. Privately, politicians must be aware of that too.
Anybody with better knowledge might perhaps chime in.

May the people of North Korea be free.

I just received a note from an intern at Democracy Now containing the following bracketed paragraph from their press release, which I am certain will interest you and your readers:

["There is a kind of reverence for Kim Jong-il by the people, because the North Korean people have a deep sense of needing sovereignty and independence," [Korea Policy Institute Executive Director Christine] Ahn says, noting that North Koreans recall 35 years of Japanese occupation and were proud of “joining the nuclear club” in order to prevent what they perceive as U.S. military occupation and the division of the Korean Peninsula.]

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/12/20/the_death_of_kim_jong_il

On the side of analysts who don’t equate Kim Jong Il with reverential treatment, there is this wildly sprawling and occasionally coherent piece by Adrian Hong which advocates the US pull out of the Six Party Talks, secure “full compliance and sanctions by China” on North Korea, “cut a deal” with the Chinese, magically transport all the refugees to Mongolia, and then have South Korea tell China “stability will not be a problem.” http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/12/19/how_to_free_north_korea?page=0,1 Hey, why not?

I was about to thank God that someone finally has the moral terpitude to finally stand up to the Chinese, but then I ran across Victor Cha’s latest audition piece in the New York Times, which really speaks for itself: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/20/opinion/will-north-korea-become-chinas-newest-province.html?_r=2 Absolutely, if the PRC were to turn North Korea into a province, the Chinese would encounter no opposition whatsoever! The Austrian Anschluss of 1938 all over again.

In the meantime, back in reality, the Chinese government is, at least to its own people, trumpeting China’s praiseworthy role in protecting North Korea’s political system: http://sinonk.wordpress.com/2011/12/20/protecting-north-koreas-freedom-of-choice-huanqiu-shibao-lead-editorial/

Actually in the midst of all of this, it would appear the failures of South Korean intelligence are pretty severe: no particular advance notice on Kim’s death, and no idea whatsoever about the 8 border guards you wrote about earlier (assuming the latter story was reliable; unfortunately I have not been in that county for more than four months and am as dependent on DailyNK as everyone else, unless Spelunker has a clue).

["tur·pi·tude /ˈtɜrpɪˌtud, -ˌtyud/ 1. vile, shameful, or base character; depravity; 2. a vile or depraved act." You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. - Joshua]

http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/16133724

[OK, Now those displays of grief are fake. That's all I needed to see. - Joshua]

http://i43.tinypic.com/20a3qdl.jpg

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/is-a-third-generation-monster-north-koreas-destiny/2011/12/19/gIQAp8Ei4O_story.html

[I know. Wasn't that amazing? I don't think I disagreed with one word. - Joshua]