Western politicians like to grandstand about North Korea, calling its leaders "mad", "rogue" or "tinpot" (The Economist has been known to do this too.) In fact, North Korea is the world's most rational despotic regime: a highly successful Communist absolute monarchy. Kim Jong Ⅰ1, son of the country's Stalinist founder, Kim Ⅰ1 Sung, failed as a leader by any of the usual standards-he enforced North Korea's isolation and presided over a famine that killed between 400,000 and 2m people. But he succeeded in what counts. He lived a long time, died peacefully in late 2011 and passed power on to his son. In the same way that betting once raged about how briefly Kim Jong Ⅰ1 would last after his father's death in 1994, so too are outsiders now calling time on North Korea's fun-loving heir, Kim Jong Un (pictured). It may be a triumph of hope over experience.
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