The new North Korean leader looks decidedly chubby next to his lean countrymen.
This cherubic young man is the grandson of a Russain plant. I came across an interesting story in a biography of a Russian movie director, Sergey Solov'ev. Here is the translation:
"Stalin needed energetic, competent people - 'cadres' still determined everything... So, my father was sent to expand socialistic horizons in the East - he became the head of counter-intelligence of the army, preparing military operations against Japan. In particular, his immediate tasks included making Kim Il-sung an emperor of the North Korean republic. This perspective 'cadre' was grown somewhere in Siberia according to the desires of the leader (Stalin), and learned manners appropriate to the head of state, Marxism-Leninism and other invaluable skills - that was the task of a professional team under my father's supervision. During all the early parades and demonstrations after the war (WWII) in Pyongyang my father stood on the tribune next to Kim Il-sung, and waved his hand in greeting of freed Korean workers. With the future heir of the north Korean throne Kim Jong-Il, who was almost my age, also sometimes stood on the tribune, but not too long - they let us off to play. Later, my mother told me that during one of these national celebrations the frightened security came to my father: I had a disagreement with the heir of the monarchy; we fought, and was drowning him in a fountain. Little Kim's head, they said, was under the water, and he was blowing bubbles, my hands, blue with effort, were clenched on his throat - why I so passionately tried to drown him was a much of a mystery to me as anybody else. All this was told by my mother. Although, I remember our house in Pyongyang very well."
It is well known that the recently deceased leader Kim Jong-Il was born in Siberia. The fact that Russians trained the original 'Dear Leader', who's still technically in charge of North Korea, is well known. It is an interesting personal confirmation of the Stalinist training.
The cult of the Kim family invokes them coming from the sacred mountain in Korea, not Stalin's training camp. It is very interesting how North Korea has taken the religious zeal of the latter years of the Stalinist regime and pushed it to its logical conclusion turning a secular communist state into a theocratic one, based on divinity of the ruling family.
Has Sergey Solov'ev felt some foreboding of where the little ruler was headed? All languages have a saying about children being soothsayers - they have not learned the benefits of lying. The fight probably has a very mundane explanation, but it's tempting to think that this child instinctively saw something brewing in the future dictator.
Another notorious 'leader' trained by the soviets was Yasser Arafat. He was instructed to 'lie, lie, lie' when pressed by his Russian handlers. What a legacy my motherland has left the world.
The Western nations, as well as South Korea, favor normal relations with the nepotistic regime that builds nukes, while starving its own people. It's quite clear that the grandson of the 'Dear Leader' will bring more suffering to his people. To emphasize stability on the Korean penincula over justice is a weak and cowardly toleration of a horrific regime. North Korea has recently asked for food assistance and the international community is likely to provide it, as in all previous cases. It seems that a young child alone knew what to do about North Korean leadership.
