Change Has Come to North Korea!

How much hope do you suppose the sullen masses in Hamhung feel at the prospect of another generation of this?

The youngest son of North Korea’s leader has been given the title of Brilliant Comrade, a newspaper reported on Friday, another sign that the Communist regime is preparing to name him as successor to its leader, Kim Jong-il. Intelligence authorities from the United States and South Korea disclosed this week that Kim Jong-un, 26, is now being referred to in the North as Yongmyong-han Dongji. That translates roughly as Brilliant Comrade, the South Korean newspaper JoongAng Ilbo reported. [AP, via N.Y. Times]

Somewhere in North Korea, a newscaster is already telling his audience about that tingle running up his leg as the new exalted one … continues to remain unseen and unheard, and lacking in any apparent qualification other than heredity:

Kim Jong-un hasn’t had to battle any serious competitors. Although he has two older brothers – Jong-nam and Jong-chol – they have not competed for the throne. Both come with baggage: Jong-nam has long been a subject of internal criticism and Jong-chol has health problems. Experts, therefore, say that Kim Jong-il essentially has no choice but to name Jong-un as his successor.  [Joongang Ilbo]

Although we still haven’t actually seen a recent photo of Kim Jong Un, he probably does look at lot like this guy, notwithstanding the fact that, to the extreme embarrassment of Asahi TV, he actually turns out to be South Korean construction worker Bae Seok-Bum (either that, or a very high ranking North Korean sleeper agent whose cover was very nearly blown).  Still, the resemblance is uncanny.

At PJTV, AEI scholar Michael Auslin speculates about the prospect of factionalism breaking out over the younger Kim’s succession in the third generation of what has become a hereditary monarchy.