Just think, “President-for-Life Barack Obama” in 2019 will be giving us fish this same way as well. Those not yet in camps, will be forced to cry in TV in appreciation. (After all, they started in on the kids in Santa Monica four years ago in that despicable Cult of Personality worship video.)
Now surely it is time for China to accept that change is better brought forward—and managed. Even if North Korea collapses chaotically, the potential long-term benefits not just for North Koreans but also for their neighbours, including China, of a peninsula at peace with itself greatly outweigh the potential instability. Some in Beijing claim to see a reformist in the uncle-regent, Jang Song Taek. If so, they should encourage him.
China is much likelier to do this if South Korea and the United States work harder to minimise the dangerous consequences of collapse. The Americans and the South could do much to reassure China (and vice versa)—for instance, by co-operating to prevent the North’s nuclear, chemical and biological weapons from falling into the wrong hands. And they could make it far clearer to the Chinese that once the peninsula is at peace there will be no need for American troops to stay.
The regrettable truth is that not just China but also America (fearful of another global crisis), South Korea (fearful of the costs of adopting a country that seems alien to many young Koreans) and Japan (fearful of a united Korea) have propped up a murderous regime. But the Kims cannot survive for ever. The sooner a dialogue begins about how to replace them, the better—not just for the stability of the region, but also for North Korea’s forgotten and downtrodden people.
http://www.economist.com/node/21542185