Living with North Korea without Kim Jong Il: A South Korean Perspective

Kim Tae Woo   2012-01-11 / 14 p.

It seems that Kim Jong Il, the man who held supreme power in North Korea for 37 years, was after all just a human being with a biologically limited life span. He died of a myocardial infarction brought on by overwork on December 17th, 2011, as announced by the North Korean government some 2 days later. The regime quickly proclaimed the dawn of the “Kim Jong Eun era” and moved to formalize and legitimize the new leadership in the wake of Kim Jong Il’s death. The new North Korean leadership headed by Kim Jong Eun has been steadily working to fill the power vacuum, proceeding smoothly through Kim Jong Il’s funeral on December 28th and the memorial service on the 29th, and naming Kim Jong Eun supreme commander on the 31st...