Something fishy is going on in North Korea. According to Yomiuri Shimbun (Japanese center-right newspaper of record), North Korea is calling upon its diplomats to stay near their embassies and to wait for an "important message" to be revealed on Monday. Here is the Times (UK) summary of the Yomiuri scoop for those few of you who are linguistically challenged and cannot read Japanese.
The speculation is that the "important announcement" has something to do with the health (or lack thereof) of the North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, who had some medical problems a few weeks ago and is now rumored to have joined Generalissimo Franco. Some others say that it's all rubbish and Kim Jong Il is just pinin' for the fjords...
Some background...
Kim Jong Il has been rumored to be "mentally incapacitated" for at least about a month already... Quoting Yomiuri Shimbun English version from Sep. 20...
The U.S. government told the South Korean government last week that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il could be in very serious condition, suffering from mental "incapacity," a South Korean newspaper reported Friday, citing diplomatic sources.
(My reaction would be - whatcha mean? It ain't no news! The little blighter's been mentally incapacitated for years already!)
North Korea responded to these rumors with the usual vehement denial and produced some pictures of Kim Jong Il doing the usual Kim Jong Il stuff (inspecting troops, healing the infirm by the laying of hands, biting heads off bats, etc.). Picture on the left (arrow points to Kim - or a cardboard cutout - checking out some female troops) was published online by AFP. However, it's kind of hard to say definitively if the pictures are recent and if yes, if they show Kim Jong Il (and not any other short guy with big glasses). This led to rumors now picked up by the media in Asia that the most recent batch of Kim Jong Il pictures was photoshopped.
Now, the Russian independent press (lenta.ru) is reporting rather unequivocally that Kim Jong Il is either dead or deposed (due to "mental incapacity"), and that more information will be available on the 20th of October. Since lenta.ru has lately been pretty accurate, this has to be taken somewhat seriously.
Assuming that there is truth to all these rumors and speculations, what are we to expect not tomorrow, but in the longer run? Will the changes in North Korea finally bring it out of self-imposed isolation and on the way to integration with South Korea? Will their military nuclear program be verifiably dismantled for good? Or will some crazy military government take over?