Korean Monarch Kim Jong Il: Technocrat Ruler of the Hermit Kingdom Facing the Challenge of Modernity
Alexandre Y. Mansourov, Ph.D. Associate Professor Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies
The Man, his Nature, and the System
Who is this 170-centimeter tall man, who dresses up like a revolutionary in the Mao-style khakie-colored suits, wears unruly hairdo and big-rim sunglasses, and puts on narrow-tipped Italian leather elevator shoes; an 80-kilogram epicure with cultivated taste in exquisite food and wine who loves French, Japanese, Russian, and Chinese cuisines; a man of arts in soul who appreciates music and cinema and is proud of his 20,000-strong universal movie collection, including all Oscar-winning performances; a dare-devil who has a passion for car-racing and untamed horse-riding; a man of letters well versed in ancient Confucian teachings on statecraft and virtues and contemporary Western philosophical literature; the "Net man" who challenges his aides to provide him with data and analyses better than what he can find by himself surfing daily the Internet; a conflicted dictator with a black sense of humor and penchant for self-doubt and occasional remorse?
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full at http://nautilus.org/DPRKbriefingbook/negotiating/issue.html
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