Empress. Empress?

Who knew that the punch-perm dictator (now suffering a major health problem?) on the Korean peninsula had a beloved, younger sister. I didn't.

On the evening news today was a face of a woman whom I have never seen in the media. The woman's name is Kim Kyong-hui - Jong-il's younger sister and one remaining 'family' (besides his three sons). Apparently she spent most of her life dearly loved and cared for by her brother. But the mere and sudden appearance of this woman was not what caught my attention. Rather, it was the headline, which read: "Empress of North Korea?"

As Jong-il's artery surgery last month indicates, the dictator is allegedly suffering from major health problems. It's understandable - at the very least, explicable - considering his obvious obesity, especially in contrast to the bodily form of the rest of his country's population. In the last few months the Asian media have concentrated on reports of Jong-il's oldest son living in Macau, of one of his sons being 'bred' as a possible successor, and most recently, of North Korea denying any negative effect of Japan's economic sanctions on its own economy and well-being. But of course, the key focus has revolved around speculations regarding Jong-il's successor. Tonight's evening news presented a suggestion very different from those of the past: that, Jong'il's sister has been seriously considered as the next ruler of North Korea.

After years of complicated political drama (basically Jong-il configuring and reconfiguring his most trusted arms), Jong-il's sister, Kyong-hui and her husband, Jang Song-taek now stand in positions closest to the current dictator. According to North Korean journalists and former politicians at the upper-echelons of North Korean governance (who abdicated and now reside in various first-world nations), Kyong-hui's words have recently come to carry the same weight and power as those of Jong-il's himself, for all intents and purposes. Her husband, Song-taek, is an economist by trade and can be found at the core of North Korea's fiscal policies as well as its administration. He stands close to his wife as her first and foremost advisor. The interviewee on the evening news - a former member of the so-called 'royal family' - commented on this newest suggestion, "This is no speculation."

So, the country whose human rights standards are far below reasonable, whose majority of its population is dying of starvation, whose economy is barely riding on trickling aid, and whose response to multilateral negotiations in this past year has been abhorrent, skips all stages of any 'standard' developmental path and is now thinking of installing an empress? I mean, not to say that a country has to follow some sort of predetermined path of development and political advancement in order to have a female leader, but France just failed to install its first female prime minister, Japan freaks out at the thought of having a female 'empress' (despite the empty figurehead she would become anyway), the United States might have its first female president in the next election (but is still quite doubtful), and the best thing Canada could come up with is a female politician who decided to switch parties (all the way across the political spectrum) before a major election (besides PM Kim Campbell in 1993). European countries are probably faring a bit better in that department, and a lot of South Asian countries are faring a lot better, but the world has still a far ways to go in 'normalizing' female global leaders. And North Korea to spearhead that? Hmm.