The Daily Star, Lebanon
August 21, 2012 01:04 AM By John Delury
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is accompanied by his wife Ri Sol Ju during a visit to the Rungna People's Pleasure Ground in Pyongyang Photo: AFP/Getty Images
The ghost of Deng Xiaoping may lurk in Pyongyang, with signs that the world’s youngest head of state is trying to shake up his isolated and impoverished nation. From the sudden dismissal of his top military leader, on grounds of “illness,” to a pop music show featuring American icons Mickey Mouse and Rocky Balboa, to a novel guest-worker program allowing North Koreans to earn hard currency in China, Kim Jong Un is taking a firm grip on power even as he loosens strictures and tells officials to try new things.
With a million-man army and nuclear weapons program, North Korea remains a source of uncertainty and instability. Can Kim Jong Un bring North Korea peaceably into the 21st century? But the example of Deng Xiaoping’s early efforts to modernize and moderate a deeply ideological China suggests promising parallels.
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