chilling

Continuing our series of "Bizarre and Despotic Dictators Of The 21st Century", our friend Kim-Jung Un is once again in the news.

Apparently, he won his seat in North Korea's Parliament with 100% of the vote, and there was a 100% voter turn-out.

I wonder if he voted for himself too?

Kim Jung-Un is a chip off the old block in a line of brutally-sadistic leaders of this poor country. The Kims are the living embodiment of Orwell's "1984" and I'm fairly sure they're very much aware of the book, and possibly deem it their Bible.

A lot of what we hear about the DPRK can be quite amusing in a backward-Stalinist state sort of way. The reality is a lot more chilling and disturbing. The people running the country are obviously terrified of the population gaining any knowledge of the outside world, and ruthlessly clamp down on any dissent. The DPRK have an almost pathological hatred of America, and although one can see their point of view to an extent, the real reasons for this mindset are blurred, obscured and tempered by over sixty-years of being on a war-footing with the U.S.

I don't believe the DPRK are nuclear-armed as they claim. If they were they'd use it, no doubts. Probably on Seoul. Or Japan. As if they haven't had enough.

One of my fondest wishes is to visit this weird country - which to all intents and purposes is a real-life version of "The Truman Show". One day, maybe, one day.......