Don't Fear The Reaper

L'il Kim Ill Jung appears to have come down with a serious ailment that prevents him from walking more than 30 steps before feeling winded. Sounds like cardiac failure to me.

It couldn't happen to a nicer guy and it can't happen fast enough for the North Korean people, who have suffered through generations of repression, misery, death, and hunger.

No doubt some doctor will be flown in to provide him with the best care he could get, all while the North Korean medical system is a complete joke. Indeed, that may have been the case when a team of German doctors came to North Korea last month, though they deny that they treated the dictator:

Speculation about the state of Kim's health was heightened when a team of six doctors from the German Heart Institute in Berlin flew to Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, for eight days last month. Kim, who also suffers from diabetes, was believed by diplomats to have been among those on the list for treatment by the combined medical and surgical team. But a spokesman for the German team said they had only treated three labourers, a nurse and a scientist.

Kim's public appearances have been curtailed this year and he has appeared in public only 23 times, compared with 42 times at the same point last year - an indication, observers say, of his declining health. The suggestion that he underwent an operation offered an apparent explanation for his recent month-long disappearance from public view.

Kim Jong Il has ruled the North - one of the most isolated and tightly controlled regimes in the world - since his father, the country's founder, Kim Il Sung, died in 1994. He became the heir apparent to his father in 1974 at the age of 32, well before the senior Kim's death two decades later.

His illness may also explain why Kim has appeared keen to tackle the question of his succession, putting two of his sons through their paces to decide which is best suited to take over.

He is reported to have taken Jong Chul, 26, and Jong Woon, 23, on a series of military inspections to ascertain who performed best. His eldest son, Kim Jong Nam, 36, is out of favour after being deported from Japan six years ago for trying to enter the country on a forged passport.

Some observers predict, however, that his eventual death might be followed by a collective leadership by military figures, ending his family's dynastic power over the impoverished communist state and paving the way for it to abandon its nuclear weapons programme and open up to the rest of the world.

And if anyone thinks that his sons are going to be an improvement over L'il Kim, think again. Think Uday and Qasay Hussein. These two are no better than their father, and a collective leadership is just as bad.