COMMENTARY | With his father, Kim Jong Il, safely interred, the new tyrant of North Korea, Kim Jong Un twentysomething is moving to consolidate his power. It is filled with some difficulty as Jong Un has not had 20 years of being clean for guidance.
Stages rallies with tens of thousands of Koreans pledged their loyalty to Kim Jong Un are being staged, according to the Associated Press. Besides the new dictator is being shown in the situation to make a virtue of his youth and thus its alleged health and energy, including making an inspection of a elite tank regiment.
Views of the inspection also buttresses Kim Jong Un association with one of three institutions that hold power in North Korea, the military. Two others are the secret police and Communist Party of North Korea.
It has been conventional wisdom that Kim Jong Un because of his youth and inexperience, will have trouble consolidating power. He has not been verified, as his father was, and has so far been an unknown quality.
This has led to concerns about stability in the Korean peninsula. Two great armies, which include a reinforced U.S. Army divisions in the south, face each other more than an armistice line as they have since the end of the Korean War almost 60 years ago. North Korea has nuclear weapons, though not perhaps an effective means to deliver them - yet.
North Korea is also destroyed by the economic turmoil that has caused it to be dependent on foreign aid, mainly from China, in order to feed its people. The shadow of hunger and all its horrors never attended too far.
North Korea's neighbors are looking for that as Kim Jong Un takes power with considerable unease. With the threat of war and hunger both never far away, the Korean peninsula is a powder keg ready to explode. It will be a fire that will not only consume two Koreas, but also China, Japan and the United States.
The perspective of a type of Korean perestroika in which North Korea finally begins the reform is remote at best. North Korea's leadership has too much at stake to allow that to happen. The best that can be hoped for at present is the continuation of nervous stability, that hostility has existed for the past several decades.
Stages rallies with tens of thousands of Koreans pledged their loyalty to Kim Jong Un are being staged, according to the Associated Press. Besides the new dictator is being shown in the situation to make a virtue of his youth and thus its alleged health and energy, including making an inspection of a elite tank regiment.
Views of the inspection also buttresses Kim Jong Un association with one of three institutions that hold power in North Korea, the military. Two others are the secret police and Communist Party of North Korea.
It has been conventional wisdom that Kim Jong Un because of his youth and inexperience, will have trouble consolidating power. He has not been verified, as his father was, and has so far been an unknown quality.
This has led to concerns about stability in the Korean peninsula. Two great armies, which include a reinforced U.S. Army divisions in the south, face each other more than an armistice line as they have since the end of the Korean War almost 60 years ago. North Korea has nuclear weapons, though not perhaps an effective means to deliver them - yet.
North Korea is also destroyed by the economic turmoil that has caused it to be dependent on foreign aid, mainly from China, in order to feed its people. The shadow of hunger and all its horrors never attended too far.
North Korea's neighbors are looking for that as Kim Jong Un takes power with considerable unease. With the threat of war and hunger both never far away, the Korean peninsula is a powder keg ready to explode. It will be a fire that will not only consume two Koreas, but also China, Japan and the United States.
The perspective of a type of Korean perestroika in which North Korea finally begins the reform is remote at best. North Korea's leadership has too much at stake to allow that to happen. The best that can be hoped for at present is the continuation of nervous stability, that hostility has existed for the past several decades.
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