Clinton: Kim Jong Il Looked Healthy to Me

Interestingly, Jimmy Carter observed the same thing about Kim Il Sung in June of 1994, when he thought he’d brought back Peace In Our Time and prevented North Korea from going nuclear. Wrong and wrong, Jimmy. It would take a few more years of Carterian presidential drift before North Korea tested its first nuke, but it wasn’t even a month before all that sam-gyop-sal and child-flesh finally got The Great Leader wheeled off to the Great Meat Locker. But then, politicians say those things when they’re being diplomatic, and we all know how carefully Jimmy Carter chooses his words. Especially in his bitter dowager years.

Similarly, I don’t put much stock in the powers of observation of any man who, while in a state of apparent sobriety and while being the most powerful man on earth, also thought Monica Lewinsky was hot enough to justify adultery, scandal, perjury, and impeachment.

Clinton even engaged in the subterfuge of bringing his own doctor to give Kim the onceover, something His Withering Majesty seemed quite cognizant of. How strong an opinion a doctor can form about a person’s health without the use of a syringe and a rectal thermometer, I will let you decide on your own.

President Obama publicly accepts Clinton’s assessment at face value, but also boasts — and with some justification, I think — about the success of sanctions at building pressure on North Korea.

My assessment: Kim Jong Il seems to be keeping a fairly busy schedule and didn’t look significantly worse in early September than he did in the spring. This doesn’t prove that he’s not dying, it just strongly suggests that for the time being, he’s a fully functional democidal tyrant. Which, to some, is a good thing.

For a dissenting view, see this report from Open News, which has it that Kim Jong Il is being driven to desperation by the reaper’s shadow.