By GI Korea on December 24th, 2011 at 7:27 am

Kim Jong-Un Now Called the “Supreme Commander”

• kangaji
  8:33 am on December 24th, 2011 1

  Will there be Baja, Chipotle, and Volcano Supreme Commanders?

• Lemmy
  8:48 am on December 24th, 2011 2

  No matter what anyone says, this guy has respect. Remember the Choenan and how about Yeongdongpo? Well, those seemed to be KN saying “KJU is crazy enough to fire a torpedo at a war ship and shell a village.” Heck, if you can’t gain or earn someone’s respect you need them to think your crazy. What a great plan………….

• ChickenHead
  11:03 am on December 24th, 2011 3

  “hopefully one day soon the North Korean people will be able to call him and his regime the “Great Failure” instead.”

  Hopefully, he will consolidate power as the old guys die off and he will bring in a younger, more worldly crowd… and they will look at China’s political transformation and South Korea’s economic transformation as inspiration… and realize a happy, prosperous, and productive population will allow them to be kings of a much better kingdom… as well as respected players on the world stage.

  The “Great Reformer” will bring prosperity and stability. The “Great Failure” will bring unimaginable misery to North Koreans… and a heavy burden to South Korea.

• Orbit
  5:05 pm on December 24th, 2011 4

  Kim jung un is the meanest son.

• Thomas Lee
  5:19 pm on December 24th, 2011 5

  #3, unfortunately, history shows that the more the generation of the last “crisis war” die off, the more likely the younger generation is to again take up arms.

  As bad as north Korea’s old guard is, they remember the horrors of the Korea War. The younger generation have no concept of how bad war really is.

• Leon LaPorte
  6:00 pm on December 24th, 2011 6

  I think he was hoping for Cobra Commander.

• Leon LaPorte
  6:22 pm on December 24th, 2011 7

  Orbit, how do you know this and mean compared to who?

• Teadrinker
  7:40 pm on December 24th, 2011 8

  #5,

  You forget that they must still have realistic expectations about what their military can and can’t do. Win a war against South Korea and its allies is not on the list of things it can do.

• MTB Rider
  8:29 pm on December 24th, 2011 9

  Well, without any “Scientific” backing, and only using descriptions available at the Public Library and Wikipedia, I’ve arbitrarily assigned the Kim Family along the lines of the Corleone Family:

  Kim Jong Il: Don Vito. He’s been running the Family and his army of capos, soldiers, button men, and assorted hangers-on.
  Kim Jong Nam: Sonny Corleone. Not sure if Jong Nam and Sonny have the same hot tempers, but Sonny also liked to gamble and chase skirts.
  Kim Jung Chul: Fredo Corleone: “Softer” than his brothers, more likely to be pushed around. Fredo was pushed around by Moe Greene, Jong Chul seems like he’s been pushed around by the rest of his family. Kim Jong Il called him “girly.”
  Kim Jong Un: Michael Corleone: Youngest (known) son, got the job after Jung Chul was passed over. May have “earned his bones” by ordering the Choenan sinking.
  There is also a sister, Kim Song Sul, who seems a bit “stronger” than Connie Corleone. Song Sul was KJI’s scheduler and Security Chief. Scheduler is usually a nothing job, but anybody on the Security Team had better be on their game. I wouldn’t think that if she were a lightweight she would be put anywhere near KJI’s security apparatus.

  I’m still betting that “Fearless Leader” will end up being his final moniker, after they try a few more on for size.

• Tom Langley
  9:50 pm on December 24th, 2011 10

  I hope they call #3 “fearless leader”. Those of us who are older can remember the fearless leader from the Rocky the squirrel cartoons.

• Tom Langley
  10:23 pm on December 24th, 2011 11

  MTB Rider #9. I want to add one more name from The Godfather to your list. Jang Song Taek, Kim Jong Il’s brother in law is similar to the role that Robert Duvall played as Tom Hagen who was the adopted son of Don Corleone who was the consigliere of the Corleone crime family. Jang Song Taek seems to be acting as regent until Kim Jong Un is old enough & experienced enough to become dictator.

• Denny
  11:07 pm on December 24th, 2011 12

  China will never allow democracy on its borders.

• kangaji
  11:29 pm on December 24th, 2011 13

  India wut?

• Nomad
  5:37 am on December 25th, 2011 14

  He’s doubting himself already

  http://www.theonion.com/articles/kim-jongun-privately-doubting-hes-crazy-enough-to,18374/

• Teadrinker
  8:06 am on December 25th, 2011 15

  Saw more of him on TV tonight at my in-laws. The consensus was that he lacks “charisma”. He looked awkward, very gauche. He looked like he couldn’t wait to get beck to playing his Xbox.

• JoeC
  11:50 am on December 25th, 2011 16

  Speaking of “bring[ing] in a younger, more worldly crowd”, will the Supreme Commander start by repatriating the 200 of his countrymen who were refused return from Libya? Would he risk them spreading the word of what happened there and tell the tales about what happened to the leader of that country?

  Here is an interesting article in the LA Times. Jong-un may have to restaff many senior positions sooner than he planned.

  A couple of weeks before Jong-il died, the LA Times also had this article:

  Any shards remaining from the North’s previous, decades-long effort to normalize ties with the U.S. were swept away by current leader Kim Jong Il’s trip in May to China, his third in barely a year. Based on our discussions with Chinese officials, we believe that during that visit, Pyongyang and Beijing came to an understanding that, in preparation for planned, major domestic political events in 2012, both sides require sustained political stability, a convergence of interests that provides the opportunity for expanding bilateral relations beyond anything enjoyed in the past. The North is building toward a “prosperous and powerful” nation in celebration of the Kim Il Sung centenary in April; the Chinese are looking toward their 18th Party Congress scheduled for late next year. In both cases, it was apparently decided, stability on the Korean peninsula would serve economic programs and the succession of a new generation of leaders.

  In the arrangements — formal and informal — that emerged from Kim Jong Il’s discussions with his hosts, Pyongyang agreed not to “make trouble” (as the Chinese described it to us) in the short term, presumably meaning no deliberate military provocations, no third nuclear test and no launch of another ballistic missile. Beyond that, the talks ended in a compromise that neither side found entirely satisfactory. Kim came away with less aid and a smaller Chinese commitment of support than he had sought, though Pyongyang typically asks for more than it can get.

  If that is true, will China expect Jong-un to maintain those agreements?

  @12 Denny said:
  China will never allow democracy on its borders.

  Yes, but they don’t want a burdensome, internally unstable and region destabilizing county on their border either. If there is too much commotion in North Korea in the coming months it could be a major topic of China’s Party Congress next year. China may then have to decide whether to cut cords or tighten nooses.

• kangaji
  3:01 pm on December 25th, 2011 17

  What? Taiwan? Hong Kong Legislative branch? India? Bhutan?

• Teadrinker
  11:18 pm on December 25th, 2011 18

  #17,

  They’ve got their claws into Hong Kong, though.

• usinkorea
  12:01 am on December 26th, 2011 19

  I wonder how the name plays in North Korean society. How about any Korean linguists – any significance that the English doesn’t transmit?

  Kim Il-Sung was the Great Leader. Kim Jong-Il took the much more subservient Dear Leader.

  Kim Il-Sung could command the deepest respect of the people and hold them better: The Soviets and Chinese tried to keep the standard of living comparable to that in the South. It wasn’t, but they tried. Il-Sung died before the great famine and the complete collapse of the economy.

  It was smart for Jong-Il to rank himself lower than the father.

  It seems they are going the opposite route with the grandson. I wonder if it will mean anything in the symbolic-driven culture of the North?

• Teadrinker
  3:25 am on December 26th, 2011 20

  I heard on the news that Kim Jong-un is now referred to as the “Super-sized Commander”.

• Teadrinker
  6:55 am on December 26th, 2011 21

  “It seems they are going the opposite route with the grandson. I wonder if it will mean anything in the symbolic-driven culture of the North?”

  They are making up for his shortcomings. He really does look like a middle-school kid who’d rather be playing Xbox than meeting his father’s co-workers.

• usinkorea
  7:40 am on December 26th, 2011 22

  But how will it play among the masses and the elite?

  The father had their respect. The son was given a grace period due to the father, but had lost it by the end, but was too powerful to dethrone even with the loss of the personality cult.

  The son has none of the “positive” family legacy to help him.

  If he manages to stay in power for tens years or more, it will be really interesting to study how it happened.

• USinKorea
  3:55 pm on December 26th, 2011 23

  Another comparison – back after Kim Il-Sung died, some analysts were saying the fact Jong-Il didn’t assume some of the titles right away was a sign of a power struggle or lack of initial strength to fully take the reigns. Maybe that was true, but I didn’t put much stock in it because of the Confucian tradition of mourning your parents for 3 years after death, and that is the same time frame that happened with Kim Jong-Il taking the official titles.

  Today, the grandson is being marched out with full regalia right away. No 3 year mourning period.

  So, looking at it with a broader, Confucian-oriented historical lens, it seems Kim Jong-Il’s waiting period was a sign of strength and Jong-Un’s one of weakness. Jong-Un isn’t respected enough. He hasn’t been groomed long enough to rest comfortably for 3 years exercising power in all but name. He has to be given the titles right away in the hopes he can gain as firm a hold on power as Kim Jong-Il had by the time his father died.

• Glans
  4:29 pm on December 26th, 2011 24

  If Kim Jong-Un has minor children, he might appoint them to high office right away, so they’ll be ready to rule without the uncertainties of a long grooming process.

• Tavatshai Kunnasuit
  3:08 am on December 27th, 2011 25

  The doctor said I was crazy. Type the word google time machine such that DIP mr.steven spielberg time machine, I do not know about any distortion. Everything about the time machine to prove any Supreme commnader all around the world to The patient stopped treatment at the Royal Prince of Kalaya right to me.s.o.s

• ChickenHead
  5:25 am on December 27th, 2011 26

  The doctor was right.

• Tavatshai Kunnasuit
  2:26 am on December 28th, 2011 27

  Stop the war in which I propose stop medicine to Institution kulayarachanakarin to me(s.o.s)

• ChickenHead
  3:02 am on December 28th, 2011 28

  Tavatshai Kunnasuit: มหาวิทยาลัยมหาสารคาม?

• Tavatshai Kunnasuit
  3:07 am on January 15th, 2012 29

  I had the money from the budget(stop war worlds)i want escaped event bad my home i ask visa do the subject help me with S.o.S thanks

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