Word: sung
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Grant at least this much to Kim Il Sung: he certainly knew how to go out with a bang. The last Stalinist dictator managed to die just when the parts of the world most unsympathetic to him would miss the ultimate totalitarian the most. A god-king to his own people, a monster to those he waged war on and a riddle to almost everyone else, the only leader that communist North Korea has ever known perished at such a delicate point of diplomacy that even his sternest ill-wishers were praying that it was not true. Late last week...
...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...
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...
...before he died? A few signs suggest it -- and some South Korean journalists and intelligence sources did not hesitate to wonder whether Kim Sr.'s death might have been given a helping hand as a result. While no proof of this exists, what is known is that Kim Il Sung emerged from a semiretirement of sorts earlier this year and adopted a stronger public role, not long after the nuclear dispute with the U.S. and other countries began sharpening. At the same time, some North Korean officials had asked Chinese physicians for advice on diagnosis of a peculiar brain injury...
...State Lawrence Eagleburger noted, the changing of the guard "adds uncertainty at precisely the time we don't need it." Jong Il plainly will find some rough going in acquiring his father's stature. Noted Norman Levin, a senior analyst at Rand Corp. in California: "If Kim Il Sung said white is black, he could make it stick. No one now has that sort of authority...