North Korea's Dictator Gets "Third Term"

It's a totalitarian dictatorship, but the regime goes through the motions of claiming that Kim Il Jung is elected and chosen by the "people."

Kim Jong Il laid to rest speculation about his health with a triumphant return to parliament Thursday for his appointment to a third term as North Korea's supreme leader.

Kim, solemnly presiding over the opening session of the reclusive communist country's rubber-stamp legislature, was making his first major public appearance since reportedly suffering a stroke last August. He appeared considerably thinner and older than nine months ago.

His appearance came on the heels of a rocket launch heralded by North Korea as "historic" but assailed elsewhere as provocative.

Limping ever so slightly as he arrived to a standing ovation from fellow deputies to the 687-seat Supreme People's Assembly, he returned their applause by clapping, then motioned for them to be seated, footage broadcast on state TV Thursday evening showed.

Legislators approved Kim as chairman of the powerful National Defense Commission, an appointment that under the constitution makes him the nation's top leader while his father, late North Korea founder Kim Il Sung, remains "eternal president."

"Having comrade Kim Jong Il at the highest post of our country again is a great honor and happiness for our military and people and a great happy event for all Korean people," a newscaster said on state TV.

The appearance may put to rest some questions about whether Kim, 67, has recuperated from a stroke that U.S. and South Korean officials say he suffered in mid-August.

While Il goes through the motions and makes a show of this, his regime is busy moving ahead with their missile technologies and are digesting the lessons of their successful missile test. While some would argue that it was a failure since it didn't result in a satellite insertion into orbit, I would argue that the true test was that the regime wanted to test the throw weight of its long range missiles and this was the perfect cover.