The Devil You Know

I don't have much nice to say about the recently deceased North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. He took something away from the North Korean people that matters a lot to me. He took away choice.

I am in no position to judge the ability of Kim Jong-um to be an effective leader of North Korea. I have never met him. Until a few days ago I had never really heard of him and I have not followed his life.

All that being said, I'm not sure if the world may be better with a known commodity in North Korea.

I understand that it is up to an individual nation to determine how a leader will be selected. I understand this isn't my place to try to incite change. However, considering that North Korea has the ability to do real damage in the world, and the deceased leader seemed to limit his use of military power he was a known commodity to the world community.

We must also realize that even though the use of military force by North Korea was limited, it wasn't an unheard of commodity. They did some pretty bad things, especially to South Korea but it never reached a level it could of.

What I would like to see is an end to any oppressive regime. I'm not sure the people of North Korea even know how good it could be but I hope they know it can be better than what they have.

I may be wrong and this series of events may be the jumping off point to better days in North Korea. I hope that is the case and I usually like to give someone the chance todo the right thing, I just don't know if they know what the right thing is, and that's the point that worries me the most.