At what extent personal/private information about a political leader - like, for instance, his eating and health habits in general, the number of his illegitimate children and sport hobbies, to mention only a couple of details - that might pertain to the domain of the gossip are relevant for building up reliable political projections and analysis?
In the case of transparent political systems, probably not too much, but when, for instance, when the population of a specific country is coping with famine and eating rats or locusts while their leaders are enjoying lavish dinners prepared by chefs brought from outside, then there is an important element to consider in evaluating the political system. The specific country I am referring to is the secretive North Korea.
The Great Successor. The Secret Rise and Rule of Kim Jong Un by Anna Fifield is a lecture that seems appropriate especially those days when rumors are spreading in the international media regarding the health status of the current leader in Pyongyang.
Kim Jong Un, the third in a communist genealogy of North Korean leaders based on traditional elements assigning divine provenance, both common to the Korean and Christian mythology and religious practice, was assigned by his ailing father as the leader of the 25 million people when he was in his 20s. Educated in Switzerland and a friend of the American basketball player Denis Rodman, the third Kim was the surprise candidate. Everything about his was ´cloaked in mystery, be it his photo, birth date or job title´. He and his ´royal family´ are extensively using fake passports and identities when abroad, the media is state-controlled and everyone, including close relatives are at the mercy of the supreme leader.
Promoted to power by his very ambitious mother, born in Japan and never married with Kim Jong Il, he was easily labelled as a millenial that can for ever challenge the most secretive and repressive dictatorship on Earth. What he did was to create his own system of trust, promote the usual protection system common to many communist countries, where a thick layer of money elites are allowed to operate according to capitalist rules as long as they fill the state accounts - symbolically, as the country is completely lacking a proper banking system. He allowed a market-driven, yet controlled, economy, which also covers the sale and distribution of meth for a variety of clients - police officers, security agents, party members, teachers or doctors. There are the ´masters of the money´ who are working hard in the country and abroad to pay for the expensive cars the leader loves to be driven in, among other luxury weaknesses.
´There is nothing the Brilliant Comrade does not know, according to the universal fiction of North Korea. He dispenses advice on catfish farming and livestock building, at green houses and tree nurseries, at construction sites and shipyards. He inspects production lines for shoes, face cream and bean paste and has wise instructions to impart at every turn. He has thoughts on music, architecture and sport. He is a military genius who has guided the progress in the nuclear and missile programs as well as commanding conventional drills at sea and on land´. A typical dictator on the likes of Stalin and his Soviet followers, but with a millenial touch.
North Korea is a country where people live ´in a system where every aspect of their lives is monitored, where every infraction is recorded, where the smallest deviation from the system will result in punishment. It is ubiquitous, and it keeps many people from even raising an eyebrow at the regime´. Typical description of the relationship between a totalitarian state and its rightless citizens.
In order to research the book, journalist Anna Fifield extensively travelled to North Korea, and the region, connected with family members, some of them very close, and North Korean that escaped the country, as well as teachers and former colleagues from Switzerland. A very complex reconstruction work, during which the identities and information often were not supposed to be revealed fully.
Being focused exclusively on the leader´s personality, it does not dedicate too much space to the geopolitical survival of North Korean elites, a mixture of Chinese and Russian conjectures, or Pyongyang´s more or less discrete exchange of information on nuclear technology with Iran, among others. I would have been curious about an in-depth analysis regarding the dynamics of the North-South relations and why exactly Kim Jong Un would have a relevant stake in the process - does he has any dream that his dictatorship will ever survive in an unified context?
As for the current media interest regarding the health situation of Kim Jong Un the author already stated that health is his biggest risk: ´The young leader looks like a heart attacj waiting to happen and has clearly had health problems´.
What the future can bring to North Korea is hard to estimate, because the flow of information remain problematic and not always unreliable. But as long as the young Kim Jong Un - in his mid 30s - stays in power he will play his own game.
Rating: 4 stars
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