Special to WorldTribune.com

By Lee Jong-Heon, EastAsiaIntel.com

North Korea has from the outset been dominated by the monolithic leadership of the “suryong (chieftain).” In the totalitarian environment created in the northern half of the Korean peninsula after World War II, that combines Marxist-Leninist ideology and religious Confucian tradition, the No. 2 man who might become a potential rival cannot be tolerated.

This is one reason why current leader Kim Jong-Un, 32, has executed and purged anyone considered a possible No. 2 man, even his own uncle Jang Song-Thaek who served as his caretaker and regent before and after the death of his father, Kim Jong-Il.

Kim Jong-Un is the third maximum leader of the nation and the grandson of communist North Korea’s putative founder Kim Il-Sung.

Given the nature of the country’s decades-long one-man dictatorship, absence of suryong – due to illness, accident, coup or what else – could lead to a serious power vacuum, power struggles, and ultimately sudden regime collapse.

Read Complete Article.

  Geostrategy-Direct..com, Inside North Korea, Jong-Heon Lee, Kim’s older brothers — one in China — still seen as viable options, WorldTribune.com