If you want to show what kind of person Kim Jon Un is, why not report the recent executions of defence officials. This is from the Sydney Morning Herald Yesterday.

TOKYO: A North Korean army minister was reportedly executed with a mortar round for drinking and carousing during the official mourning period after the death of Kim Jong-il.

Kim Chol, the vice-minister of the army, was taken into custody earlier this year on the orders of Kim Jong-un, who assumed the leadership after his father died in December. On the orders of Mr Kim to leave "no trace of him behind, down to his hair", Kim Chol was forced to stand on a spot that had been zeroed in for a mortar round and was "obliterated", South Korean media reported.

The execution is just one example of a purge of members of the North Korean military or party who threatened the fledgling regime of Mr Kim.

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So far this year, 14 senior officials have fallen victim to the purges, according to intelligence data provided to Yoon Sang-hyun, a member of the South Korean foreign affairs, trade and unification committee.

Those that have fallen from favour include Ri Yong-ho, the head of the army, and Ri Kwang-gon, the governor of the North Korean central bank.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/north-korean-minister-obliterated-20121025-286os.html#ixzz2AJHy1iys

He sounds like one of the less-reputable roman emperors, this guy is third generation. He may be North Korea's Uday Hussein, G-d help them all there.

The execution of military officials doesn't say at all what kind of leader Un is. Without sufficient context, we don't know if they were killed for opposing reform, opposing the Kim dynasty, minor offenses, or just so that Un could appoint new generals he liked better.

What does give a hint that change might not be on the horizon is the continuing threats of military action in response to petty offenses by the south, and the continued operation of NK's appalling prison camps.

Wow he's a good little emperor! and a nasty devil at that, he is a regular Caligula. I'll bet he forced his wife to marry him or he would have her family removed, his nick name should be The Eraser, Caligulaof the east. if we ignore him long enough he will kill off all his commanders and upper echelon party members, there won't be anyone other then him to contend with. unfortunately North Korea might learn to like him or even love him because things can not get much worse, there is only one direction North Korea can go when you are on the bottom, history has shown that rulers like him don't last long, every time he murders someone he makes new enemies its only a matter of time till someone gets him and the more time the more paranoid he will become, and the more he will kill, he might wind up just self destructing. at any rate if he keeps killing someone will kill him in a attempt to not be his next victim.

What's the mystery about a pudgy, 3rd generation Korean leader with a Napoleon complex and a bad haircut?

Bill

The inscrutable smile Kim Jong Un presents in public - would really like to know what goes on behind the scenes. Somehow, I have a feeling he is not Mr Happy in private.

The only intelligent remark by Panetta was in regards to the horrible effects the OBAMA ADMINISTRATIONS' INTRODUCTION of Sequestration would have on our Military. Other than that he has just assumed the role of "mouthpiece" and "footrest" for Obama. Very Dim Light........30W in a 150W fixture.

I think you mean a rebellion, not a coup. A coup implies that the military takes charge of the country, and as of now the military and the Communist party are practically the same institution in North Korea. The military would never turn against the government, and if they did, things would almost certainly get worse, not better (if that's even possible).

I think young Kim Jong Un's father had an infatuation desire with Madeline Allbut-Bright and he lavished her with the best food/drink/and whatever? when she went to pay her respects as Sec State during Bubba's administration. If you recall the face of Allbut-Bright, you would wonder no more why "Daddy Kim" never wore his glasses in her presence!

Alan...why is it that persons such as you have an issue with simply taking steps to provide Defense for their Citizens??? In the case of South Korea, a most intelligent and productive citizenry I might add, protected by a Gov't. that actually cares about its' Citizens. Contrary to the North Korean "Kim Dictatorial Dynasty", which has starved and murdered its' Citizens for decades, IN ORDER TO MAINTAIN POWER. Yes, all countries should be able to develop Defense Weapons.... AFTER THEY PROVIDE THE TOOLS AND MEANS OF FEEDING THEIR OWN CITIZENS. Funny, I don't see any "tears" in your post regarding the enduring plight of the North Korean people. Go place your Liberal Judgements elsewhere....somewhere they might just fit.

@Alan: Look, all of what you have to say would sound great on a reality TV program made of of bleeding heart libs, but those programs are not reality they are surreal. Dfending yourcountry, its allies and interests are reality.

Let's take a look at what NK is doing, developing a missile program that should eventually reach our shores and the mainlands of our Asian partners. So, we better counter their advances with our own or we will get caught with our pants down. Now, wouldn't that ruin programming for all those "reality" programs?

Because the NKs have been known to send special ops teams into South Korea to murder random civilians, abduct Japanese and South Korean filmmakers and actors at random (Their last leader had a movie fetish and would abduct them to make them produce movies for him, yes, really) and sank a ship last year belonging to the South Koreans in International waters. Most nations, like the US, Russia, France etc. are basically rational. We know they have nukes but aren't likely to use them. Heck the US didn't even use nukes after 9/11. North Korea on the other hand is psycho enough that they might, and they kill more of their own people than any of their government's "enemies" would, in fact they kill their own people for sport. Hunger Games was a walk in the park next to what the North Korean "leadership" does to their own people. That's why.

If one country can develop weapons, any country can develop the same weapons. One country doesn't get to dictate who can do what elsewhere in the world.

Actually, sometimes they do get to do that.

You see, not all countries are the same. We actually CAN have a multinational consensus that certain countries should not have access to nuclear weapons and ICBMs. If you're going to treat countries like people and assume that they all have basic sovereign "rights", fine. But just like with people, when countries behave badly, the community has the right to take them away and punish the offender. There's nothing unfair about it.

Alan you are beyond reasoning, you live in a fantasy world, a liberal nightmare, there is no point in my attempting to reach you because your brain is gone, you have been assimilated into the collective of the liberal socialist pinkos the people who don't think or reason because they cant think or reason they can only follow. if you could think or reason you would not have made that post.

Alan,

"Provocative and threatening" is the term applied to the country that invaded the other in 1950, triggering a three year war that left over one million people dead, including over 50,000 U.S. servicemen, the country that continues to make overt threats and the country that maintains an absurdly large military.

"Legitimate defensive capability" is the term applied to the country that was invaded and is the subject of the aforementioned threats.

Got it?

@conservative;

Yes I have seen that pic,the contrast to the rest of Asia is unreal.Makes you feel for the people of this country.

Coral: Indeed. I often wonder that if someone from North Korea was to immgrate to the USA, (and I admit, I don't know if that is even possible) how long it would take them to realize how oppressive their country really is.

I can't say how isolated they are overall. I know they must have some some idea of what much of the world outside of their country is like, but I could fully imagine that if you took a North Korean into an average American grocery store, that they would believe that it was just a set-up to con them into believing "the lies" that Americans have told the rest of the world.

I wonder how long it would take them to understand that something like an average Kroger grocery store, that everyone in America takes for granted, is available 24 / 7 to most Americans, and that it was in fact their government that was telling them the lies.

I think for many who have been indoctrinated for so long, that it would be almost impossible to believe.

As many problems as we have here in America, there is still no place in the world I would rather live.

The North Korean populace is quite deliberately and extensively kept ignorant of the outside world. All outside communications are carefully monitored and screened, if not blocked altogether. Never mind the United States, just getting across the border to South Korea means being exposed to a world of prosperity unimaginable to the numerous peasants that make up the NK populace.

Most citizens in North Korea literally had no idea what life was like outside their country, save what they're told by the regime, until the wide-spread smuggling of unwanted VCRs and video tapes across the border with China. According to an article in the Economist I read a few years ago, it was a revelation for many of them to see some of the South Korean dramas and movies giving glimpses of what life is like in a capitalist nation.

Whether Kim knows or not, his generals must. They have to know what's going on, or they'll be unable to command. It's the same scenario every time. Kim, or Ahmadinejad, or some other wacko gives the order, the nearest general draws his side arm, & shoots the Dear, Beloved, Great Leader right through his empty skull.

Great! Another state funeral for a leader tragically lost to an accident while cleaning his pistol. So sad.

This is probably why he is purging Army folks, like Stalin did. Stalin murdered a lot of his best, and most loyal generals, right before WW2. It nearly lost him the war in 1941. (The Russian people should thank the heavens that Zhukov was off in Siberia and didn't end up getting purged too.) Many "Communist" leaders (North Korea is really more like Feudalism now) purge their generals and look to Stalin as a model, the North Koreans are starving their own people constantly too, like Stalin in the 1930s in the Ukraine. Scumbags all these types of "leaders." Not worth the word leader :(

I'd have to assume that the leadership knows how easily they could be wiped out, but you never know. They live in a state of constant, rigid propogandic exposure, where they're constantly oppressed by other nations while at the same time capable of destroying them if necessary. When you live in that kind of environment, with all other influences shut out, you might start believing it yourself, even if you should know better.

No, they're still quite Communist (or maybe Stalinist would be a better word?). They still practice central economic planning, do not allow their citizens to own much property, have oppressive taxation, and shut down private markets and industry that does not benefit the state. That IS Communism, in practice if not in theory.

If they're warmongers, why would they be a mystery? Wouldn't their responses usually, I don't know, push for military action?

NBC News should have a contest for what the poor horse is thinking.