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The Kim family has ruled North Korea for more than 50 years, ever since the current ruler’s father, Kim Il-Sung, took power in 1948. Kim Jong-Il ruled over a country whose people often experience extreme poverty and famine (large food shortages) but still generally revered him as their “Dear Leader.”
The Kim family has created a “cult of personality” in North Korea by using the media and propaganda to create heroic and idealized images of themselves. It is difficult for outsiders to know exactly what goes on beyond North Korea’s tightly guarded borders, but it’s clear that many North Koreans have become loyal followers of the Kim family.
According to some reports, many North Koreans believe that Kim Il-Sung created the world and that Kim Jong-Il controled the weather. However, because of their poor living conditions, some people are getting fed up with life under the Kim family and may not accept a new leader as easily.
“(After) years now of famine and deprivation, people, I don't think, believe in (the regime) the same way they did,” journalist Barbara Demick told the NewsHour last year.
A young leader is groomed
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Kim Jong-Un, pictured here on television, is believed to be 28 years old and went to school in Switzerland. |
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The heir apparent to the Kim dynasty, Kim Jong-Un, is believed to be about 28 years old and is the youngest of Kim Jong-Il’s three sons. He was educated in Switzerland at a boarding school before returning to North Korea.
Kim Jong-Un had rarely been mentioned to the North Korean people until October of 2010, when the government called a meeting of the Worker’s Party to promote him to a higher military rank and presumably prepare him to take over for his father. The Worker’s Party is the ruling political party in North Korea.
The Worker’s Party had to promote Kim Jong-Un in the military ranks before he can assume his new leadership position because North Korea has a policy called “songun” - military first. The North Korean military, whose 1.2 million troops make it among the largest in the world, is in charge of the country’s politics through a body called the National Defense Commission, which the Kim family heads up.
Power transfers can make governments vulnerable
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Fidel Castro, the former ruler of communist Cuba, also kept power in the family by handing leadership duties to his brother, Raul. |
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Transferring power within a government can make the people in charge vulnerable because others might take advantage of the leadership shift to take power for themselves or create instability.
Countries that are led by dictators often hand down leadership responsibilities within families to avoid vulnerability and keep power concentrated in the hands of a few. A similar transition happened in 2008 in Cuba, another communist country, when longtime dictator Fidel Castro ceded power to his brother, Raul. Although the elder Castro is in poor health, reports indicate that he still helps his brother with key decisions and has a role in Cuba’s foreign policy. It’s expected that Kim Jong-Il would also continue to influence his youngest son’s policy decisions during and after the power transfer.
Communism is a form of government originally designed to spread power and wealth among all people. But, so far, the world’s communist governments haven’t turned out that way: today’s five communist countries (North Korea, Cuba, China, Laos and Vietnam) all have governments where leadership power and wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few top officials and figureheads.
What does the future hold for North Korea?
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No one is sure how the leadership change in North Korea will play out. |
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The power transfer in North Korea is being closely monitored because of what regime collapse could mean for the rest of the world. Analysts believe that if North Korea’s government breaks down completely, its 23 million people would stream toward the country’s borders with China and South Korea. Because so many North Koreans are malnourished and in poor health, such a mass migration would be a major humanitarian crisis.
China in particular has a vested interest in what happens in North Korea because it would bear the brunt of such a refugee crisis. China is also the biggest supplier of food, arms, and fuel to North Korea.
It’s too early to tell what will happen in North Korean politics now that Kim Jong-Il has died, but it’s clear he took some precautions to keep power in the family at all costs: when he promoted his son to the rank of “general” in the military, he did the same for his sister and her husband.
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How can any child gain a well rounded perspective of the world when their very education is being cut and sewn by objecting parents into a protective veil they will wear their entire lives?
