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[Gollum]

NEWS FOCUS]Like father like son: two dear leaders
Korea Herald

On July 8 1994, in the midst of a record-breaking sizzling summer heat wave on the peninsula, Koreans on both sides of the border awoke to the bewildering news that the \"Great Leader\" of communist North Korea, was dead.
Kim Il-sung, who died aged 82, was the founding father of the Democratic People\'s Republic of Korea, aka North Korea, and has been enshrined \"Eternal leader\".

After founding the state in 1948 with the help of the Soviet Union following World War II, Kim ruled for nearly half a century until his death, when the people wept for their beloved leader and entered a three-year mourning period while his son Kim Jong-il was de facto head of the Workers Party.

\"Kim Il-sung in North Korea, there is no doubt in anyone\'s mind before or even after his death, that their \'great leader\' is a \'perfect\' being,\" said Prof. Kim Keun-sik of the Institute For Far Eastern Studies at Kyungnam University.

\"He wasn\'t just a leader but more a father figure, a figure of hope and prosperity. He was everything they believed in, much like the presence of a god.\"

Kim Jong-il officially succeeded his father in 1997, and a decade later remains only the second ruler in the 56-year history of the Stalinist state.

But, unlike his father, the image of Jong-il to North Koreans is more realistic and down to earth.

\"While Kim Il-sung was known as a man of charisma, Kim Jong-il, is known as a man of boldness,\" Prof. Kim said.

\"In a positive sense, Kim Jong-il is considered to be bold and broad-scaled, and the people believe his kind of character is capable of bringing out dramatic changes to society.\"

Growing up as the unrivaled heir to the hermit kingdom, Kim Jong-il was carefully groomed to fulfill his filial piety, following in the footsteps of his father, the great military leader, founder and god of the country.

\"Kim Jong-il lived in his father\'s shadow all his life, and still remains there since his father\'s death,\" Prof. Paik Hak-soon of Sejong Institute said.

\"But he is a creation of Kim Il-sung, and Kim Jong-il acquired his father\'s ways of governing because that\'s been his way of life.\"

Indeed, the latter Kim has lived up to the expectations.

The North\'s economy was already in tatters towards the end of the Kim Il-sung regime, and by the time Jong-il came into power, the situation was calling for drastic remedies. The economy remains in dire straits.

\"When comparing the two regimes, the Kim Il-sung era was a period of development and stature, to build its own strong and independent societal formation under its socialist ideology. But Kim Jong-il\'s era is about succession and growth, in other words, continuance and change,\" Prof. Kim said.

Contrary to the outside world\'s belief that the globe\'s last iron-curtain society would crumble before a decade was over, North Korea remains a viable power, with junior Kim making concessions both economically and socially.

With his official title as head of the National Defense Commission, the highest position in the communist country today, his leadership is based on his ability to follow the teachings of his father.

Unlike his father, however, junior Kim began opening up and reaching out to the world, holding a historic inter-Korean summit meeting in 2002 with then South Korean President Kim Dae-jung.

With other bold approaches for change, the junior Kim has often surprised the world by allowing unprecedented peeks behind his country\'s half-century old iron curtain.

The benefits have been immeasurable. His so called \"camp diplomacy\" has helped the reclusive nation engage in a broad spectrum of ties with Europe and Southeast Asia, and enhanced its amicable relations with former allies China and Russia.

Kim Jong-il\'s objective is not to preserve his oddball form of communism. It is to remain in power - and the liberal economic and limited social reforms that have been introduced in China appear to offer the best model for him to do this. It should be remembered that all East Asian countries which have developed during the past 30 years have done it under limited, or no, democracy, South Korea included

North Korea appears to be opening up, very gradually. The country\'s first advertisement appeared earlier this year, and over the past months people are learning the ways of capitalism and making sales and purchases on their own.

Despite the changes, the cult of Kim Il-sung will be almost impossible to shift. He is so much a part of the country and its people that to reject him would be, for most North Koreans, to reject themselves.

Ten years ago today, Kim Il-sung died after a major heart attack, but his central place in the life of the nation has not diminished in the decade since.

When he formally took over, Kim Jong-il did not adopt the title of president. Instead, he awarded his father the title \"Eternal President\".

So, to this day, North Korea remains the only country with a dead head of state.

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By Choi Soung-ah

[jajdude]

I don't need to read that. I just skimmed it quickly.

My mind is closed and already made up. Those two KIMs up north are wonderful men, and I wish I was born there with all the privileges of never being able to leave, one TV, one radio station of all propoaganda. Hopefully I wouldn't be too hungry. Maybe i could get a little medical treatment. I think bandaids would help my depression. Never meeting another person outside of NK would be a treat, since the world is evil and Americans are devils, and it's great to live in a country that is like a prison. All the comraderie among my fellow Stalinists makes me feel so good. I'm happy in Nk because ignorance is bliss!

Never mind. I would like Mr. KJI to die soon. But will it matter?

[seoulunitarian]

I will never understand the praise and positive attention North Korea and it's leaders receive in the South Korean media. All of the media publications which praise them here in the South would be banned in the North. The North has just positioned more missiles aimed at the South, other Asian countries, and American possessions; they are digging more tunnels into the South; they are feeding their military by starving their population. Sounds like a utopia to me I would encourage all the supportive reporters to spend a day in the North (a real day - which is impossible), and, if they return, then print some real news.