North Korean State TV says the Dear Leader has departed. Here’s what Vaclav Havel, the anti-Communist hero whose death we also learned of today, had to say about about Kim Jong-il:
The Northern part of the Korean peninsula is governed by the world’s worst totalitarian dictator, who is responsible for taking millions of human lives. Kim Jong-il inherited the extensive Communist regime following the death of his father Kim Il-sung, and has shamelessly continued to strengthen the cult of personality.
He sustains one of the largest armies in the world and is producing weapons of mass destruction. The centrally planned economy and the state ideology of juche have led the country into famine. The victims of the North Korean regime number in the millions.
There’s more. And Christopher Hitchens, who passed away a few days ago, visited North Korea and wrote quite a bit about it; some samples here, here, and here.
