Times: Kim dynasty going to pieces in North Korea

Would be nice if it turns out to be true

Excerpts:

In interviews for this article over many months, western policymakers, Chinese experts, North Korean exiles and human rights activists built up a picture of a tightly knit clan leadership in Pyongyang that is on the verge of collapse.

Some of those interviewed believe the Dear Leader', Kim Jong-il, has already lost his personal authority to a clique of generals and party cadres. Without any public announcement, governments from Tokyo to Washington are preparing for a change of regime.

The death of Kim's favourite mistress last summer, a security clampdown on foreign aid workers and a reported assassination attempt in Austria last November against the leader's eldest son, Kim Jong-nam, have all heightened the sense of disintegration...

According to exiles, North Korean agents in Beijing and Ulan Bator are frantically selling assets to raise cash - an important sign, says one activist, because 'the secret police can always smell the crisis coming before anybody else'.

And then there's this

Excerpt:

A 35-minute video clip shows a portrait of Mr Kim taken inside a factory building and defaced with writing demanding democracy.

Do Hee-youn, who heads the South Korean group that made the clip available, said such an act would be considered a grave crime in the North and would bring capital punishment without trial.

I say:

It's like the fall of the Soviet Union all over again. This is what happens when you get tough with these bastards. They can't survive without our help.

One danger here is that North Korea probably has nuclear weapons, and is known to have the missiles to deliver them. Will Kim decide to launch them on the theory he has nothing to lose? All indications are he's not insane, just utterly without moral sense.

When Kim falls, there will likely be a democratic revolution. But if history is any guide, its success is not guaranteed. Recall the French Revolution. Recall Russia's revolutions in 1917. The Left has a habit of killing democracies in the nest and taking their place. Unless we step in to help, it'll just be a new Communist dynasty.

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