Word: kim
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Internally, Kim's passing was definitely the end of an era. Foreign diplomats inside the country reported that children were breaking out spontaneously in tears and masses of stunned, flower-laden mourners were filing through the streets. Beyond that, though, the death also signaled a likely accession to power of the spectacularly mysterious Kim Jong Il, the Great Leader's son and anointed heir...
Would he venture peace, threats, war? Would he last for years, six months, six weeks? At a press conference in Naples, Clinton said he saw no reason to panic. Though South Korean President Kim Young Sam had ordered his forces on emergency alert just in case, Clinton said he agreed with Washington's top brass that events had revealed "no evident alarming change" and that nothing ) so far warranted beefing up the 35,000 U.S. forces now stationed in the South. Asked what he thought of Kim Jong Il's prospects, however, the President admitted, "I don't know...
...weight of opinion holds that this candidate for the first dynastic succession in the dwindling communist world cannot hold a candle to his father. The North Korean myths exalting Jong Il are so elaborate as to be hilarious. As with Kim Il Sung, who was said to have nearly supernatural powers and be in several places at the same time, Kim Jong Il's life is swaddled in layers of official fable worthy of a demigod. His birth was foretold by a swallow. A double rainbow appeared over sacred Mount Paektu when he was born. The mythographers have not claimed...
...last weekend, however, the Dear Leader had still not sewn up his accession. The fact that the announcement of his father's death was delayed a full day and a half suggested to some outsiders that Kim Jong Il was busy lining up support behind the scenes. Several hours after the broadcast, a number of top Establishment figures came out with statements of allegiance to him. Even then, he was not styled President -- yet. That formality, assuming it comes, will have to wait for some quasi-coronation ceremonies at high councils of the party and state...
Significantly, China reacted gingerly to the news of Kim Il Sung's death and barely mentioned the son, even though he had already been named to head the funeral committee -- usually a solid sign in communist successions that the nominee is destined to become maximum leader. From the time Kim Il Sung sent his tanks rolling across the Demilitarized Zone in 1950, precipitating the cold war's first hot conflict and bloodshed on a grand scale, Beijing has been wedded to the fortunes of North Korea's founder, a man Mao Zedong embraced as a strong ally. Over the years...