Kim Jong Il

From RationalWiki

Kim Jong Il is the vertically challenged megalomaniac totalitarian dictator of North Korea. George Orwell had a premonition about Kim and wrote a novel about a regime that is eerily similar to his. Kim Jong Il is probably the most repressive dictator on the planet. North Korea is a giant prison, and people are not allowed to enter or leave. Very few people own cars, and large segments of the population face famine, because of the government's inability to provide even the basic necessities for most of its citizens. At least part of this is due to the fact that there is mandatory military service from age 18 to 35 for all males, taking some of most productive members of the work force out of it. Moreover, he has stymied most attempts at foreign investment, despite efforts by South Korea to help.

Kim Jong Il is the second member of a dynasty that included his old man, Kim Il Sung. The elder Kim's personality cult was transferred to his son after his death. The elder Kim was at least an honest-to-something anti-colonialist, having fought the Japanese during World War II. The younger one has done diddly squat -- unless you believe the North Korean press, in which case he has written ballets, cured cancer, and single handedly built an atomic weapon. We believe the photographs from space, which show a peculiar lack of man-made light at night from the northern half of the Korean peninsula. An amateur astronomers' paradise, perhaps, but it mostly means they have no electricity.

As of September 10, 2008, Kim Jong Il is officially "ill".