Star One Smart Blog's

Kim "The Beast" Jong-un

If you've never read Frank Herbert's novel Dune (the world's best best-selling science fiction novel) then you've missed the reference; best you skip over this post, maybe laugh at the image. And immediately rectify that slight; here, Amazon, for $8, will help you out.

And don't think watching either of the broken screen adaptations makes up for your lack of doing the right thing.

The Baron Harkonnen, a despotic ruler of immense proportions, took over rule of the planet Dune to squeeze more taxes from it's subjects. He sent Glossu ("The Beast") Rabban to work the planet, to squeeze it, to show no mercy...

"A carnivore never stops. Show no mercy. Never stop. Mercy is a chimera. It can be defeated by the stomach rumbling it's hunger, by the throat crying it's thirst."

The Beast. A muscle-minded tank-brain, sent in to squeeze the population, and finally make way for Feyd-Rautha, the compassionate one, the 'pretty boy', as savior.

North Korea as Dune? Not likely. There are no fremen hiding in the bushes. And I doubt there's anything pretty in House Jong-il.

But as a tale of succession, this is a good one...

It is like the story of a one-time crown prince called Yangnyeong at the beginning of the Joseon Dynasty. The eldest son who was initially deemed the next in throne loses his status to his younger brother after falling out of his father’s favor for misbehavior. The defamed, womanizing son goes into exile.

Only this time, in North Korea, the brothers’ country faces an opaque future.

Because he is the eldest, Jong-nam, born in 1971, was often considered the most likely son to succeed North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. That was until 2001 when he got caught trying to enter Japan on a fake Dominican passport bearing the name Pang Xiong which means “Fat Bear” in Chinese. He told the police that he wanted to go to Tokyo Disneyland, which greatly enraged his father. After several days of detention, Jong-nam was deported to China, making Kim Jong-il cancel a scheduled trip to China out of embarrassment to both countries.

Prior to the globally publicized 2001 incident, Jong-nam had reportedly made several secret visits to Japan, starting as early as 1995.

Several years after the eldest son’s fallout, speculation rose over whether the throne would go to second son Jong-chol, as it usually did during the Joseon Dynasty.

Unlike his elder brother who was tutored and educated in North Korea’s elite school, Jong-chol, born in 1981 to a different mother, was educated in Switzerland for five years until 1998.

It was only early last year that the outside world learned that the “Dear Leader” finally decided to pass on his legacy to the third and youngest son Jong-un, born in 1984.

If any parallels exist between Dune and North Korea, best would be the eventual defeat of House Jong-il. Because Kim Jong-il has squeezed North Korea for decades, has oppressed the population to the point of starvation. A better successor might have been Jong-nam, who escaped to Japan and knew that bright lights at night were attractive. This young son, Jong-un, seems much like his father.

But unlike his hungry father, Jong-nam looks much like he might need suspensors to carry his future bulk.

Kim "The Beast" Jong-un. Now there's a reference you can relate to.

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