TIME Magazine: TIME 100: Kim Jong Il


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Kim Jong Il

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	George W. Bush Hu Jintao Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva Ali Sistani Toshihiko Fukui Abu al-Zarqawi Kofi Annan Condoleezza Rice Recep Tayyip Erdogan John Abizaid Kim Jong Il Bill Gates Pope John Paul II Atal Bihari Vajpayee John Kerry Luisa Diogo Vladmir Putin Wu Yi Osama bin Laden The Clintons
	Builders & Titans Artists & Entertainers Scientists & Thinkers Heroes & Icons Introduction Essay FROM THE ARCHIVE: Leaders & Revolutionaries from 1900-1999

Self-Confidence With Nukes

By MICHAEL ELLIOTT

KOREA NEWS AGENCY/AP

FROM THE TIME ARCHIVE

	The Remaking of Kim Jong IL How--and why--the world's scariest dictator made himself into a huggy bear [6/26/2000]

A portly man who has been suspected of wearing platform shoes and having an unhealthy appetite for movies—and movie stars—can be expected to be the butt of jokes. But North Korea's Dear Leader is no laughing matter. Since his accession to power on the death of his father Kim Il Sung, in 1994, Kim Jong Il has shown that an economic basket case of a state, which at times has been unable to feed its people, and which is brutally authoritarian, can still manage to keep the great powers off balance—so long as it has, or plausibly threatens to have, nuclear weapons. U.S. officials, together with those of South Korea, Japan, Russia and China, try to figure Kim's motivations precisely because Pyongyang's nuclear program makes North Korea one of the most dangerous regimes in the world.

Kim is no fool. Those who have met him describe a man who is smart and has a supreme sense of self-confidence, almost as if the movie buff aspired to be a director, shuffling everyone else around at his command. And though North Korea can seem one of the places most isolated from world affairs, Kim is said to keep abreast of events by trolling the Internet and watching TV.

The possibility of nuclear proliferation is one of the great existential threats of our time. In the next few years, finding a way to disarm North Korea while satisfying Kim's iron determination to secure the survival of his regime will continue to be a priority for Kim's neighbors and Washington. That's no joke.

Jan. 13, 2003 June 13, 1994 Aug. 08, 1960

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