By Lee Jong-Heon, East-Asia-Intel.com

SEOUL — North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il, accompanied by his son and heir-apparent Kim Jong-Un, rushed to military fortresses after he heard about the bloody killing of his colleague dictator Moammar Gadhafi in Libya.

The two Kims made a “surprise visit” to the People’s Army Unit No. 985, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said on Oct. 22, two days after Gadhafi was captured and killed outside his birthplace of Sirte while hiding in a drainpipe.

As the North’s media usually report Kim’s public activity one day after it was actually takes place for security reasons, his visit to the military unit most likely happened on Oct. 21. KCNA said Kim made the “on-site” inspection of the army unit without prior notice.

On his visit, Kim Jong-Il was accompanied by his son Jong-Un and a number of key aides including the senior Kim’s brother-in-law Jang Song-Taek, and Kim Kyong-Ok, the first deputy head of the Organization-Guidance Department of the Workers’ Party, among others, the KCNA report said.

According to military officials in Seoul, the People’s Army Unit No. 985 is a code name of the security center tasked with protecting Kim’s family and his loyalists and suppressing protests.

“Kim’s visit to the military safeguards just after Gadhafi’s death shows that he was shocked and unnerved by what happened in Libya,” a military official said. “The bloody images of the fallen Libyan tyranny were sure to have cause jitters among the North’s ruling elite members,” he said, noting the death came just after eight months of public protests.

Chung Young-Tae, a senior research at the state-run Korea Institute for National Unification (KINU) in Seoul, says Kim’s visit was aimed at checking its readiness to cope with any possible Libya-like public protests. “The North’s media report on Kim’s visit to the military safeguards was designed to warn the people that the military is fully prepared to counter any public protests,” he said.

Chung and other analysts say Kim may suffer the same fate as the ousted Libyan autocrat because there is great similarity between how Kim’s methods and how Gadhafi operated. The similarities were said to include psychopathic personalities, their iron grip on power, and the enforcement of a monopoly of national wealth to ensure their survival and secure loyalty.

Born in the same year of 1942, the two dictators maintained their strangleholds on power for about 40 years. Kim has been in power for 37 years since he was designated his father’s successor in 1974. Gadhafi ruled for 42 years after toppling the Libyan monarchy in a military coup in 1969.

While Gadhafi propagated what he called direct democracy while calling his regime “Jamahiriya” (a nation of the people), Kim invented the military-based ruling formula of “songun” (army-first) under which the top priority is given to the 1.2 million-strong armed forces.

In a bid to boost his image, Kim has indoctrinated the people with the impression that he acts boldly and on a big scale, calling such a ruling style “kwangpok (extensive magnanimity)” and “indok (benevolent virtue), terms coined to depict Kim Jong-Il as a leader of generosity who is always concerned about the happiness of the people.

Kim has been known to enjoy luxurious parties with an entourage of young beauties known as the “pleasure brigade,” while Gadhafi had an entourage that included female bodyguards and a busty Ukrainian nurse. Like Kim, Gadhafi had prepared to transfer his power to his son.

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