He has appeared once since at a factory opening apparently supremely healthy, issue being - that could have been stock footage, no one really knows.Lol, it has been a few months. Has he ever appeared on live TV yet? Honestly, if Kim kicked the bucket, I doubt we'd see a whole lot of changes in foreign policy. Imo, Kim is just a puppet figure head, and the higher ups actually run the country.
Kim wasnt a puppet, because they kind of have a ruling family thing going, where they have an advisor caste thats running the bureaucracy, but that is tightly connected to the ruling family circles, and when there are power struggles, they tend to kill off uncles and other family members together with their wing of the bureaucracy.
You also can see, that he isnt a puppet, by virtue of the fact that both Kim and his sister received a modern western education. You dont do that with puppets. Kind of counter productive.
Just because they ride on white horses to holy mountains, doesnt mean they believe in that crap. Thats for symbolism. The masses need that.
edit: Also, this entire 'conspiracy of ruling a country' thing is kind of overblown. it happens, when it happens, and its kind of obvious, when it does (financial influence in the US, Dick Cheney ruling instead of Bush, ...) after a while people just tend to notice, and usually are fine with it. What gets power is usually a "drive to power", not scheming for decades to be a shadowy ruler. What fun is that? Also wouldnt this get horrendously boring after a while..? And how do you do transitions of power?
People can so easily be made to submit to a leadership figure, and they adjust so easily to circumstances, there is no need for elaborate plans, outside of lets say corruption.
Even in western democracies, someone has to make the head honcho, its usually not the smartest guy, then the party rules, so what? If only there were good conspiracies to be had... But its only the Mercers, Steve Bannon, Dominic Cummings once in a while. And then the international liberal intellectual elite, that puts their conferences on youtube, usually...
Also do you know how hard it is to leash a dictator? People even say, that much of the stuff the republicans do is, because of the influence Trump and the far right hold over that party. And Trumps a moron, and his fraction outfits itself with corruptable lawyers throughout most of its ranks. Because Trump favors loyalty. (Has everyone sign NDAs in government, which isnt a thing and never has been before him, then tries to sue people for breach of NDA, which isnt a thing in politics, and never has been before him. ) But somehow this is still draining the swamp..
edit: Also, there is an all powerful shadowy organization that told the ruling class it could exchange the leader of a country within a few weeks just a few years ago. Its called the CIA, and last time I checked Assad was still the head of Syria - so... why does this shadowy puppeteering control only ever work so well in your own country.. Are dictators the only 'real' powerelites that arent controlled? Because, we kind of always want to really, really get rid of some of those..
People usually get worried, when someone accrues enough power to be able to change the constitution of a country, or the standing law. And if you see the system of laws as the oppressing force, wouldnt those shadowy figures be found in law schools? Then look up who writes international trade laws, f.e. - those are pretty murky..
Or go back in time, and look at Bretton Woods and the origins of the current international monetary system, and try to explain, why the US is so worried that their 'century in power' will be cut short by 50 years.. Who puppeteered that?
Want to know about the chinese power elites? Look it up, its pretty out there in the open, how their recruitment works.
Last edited by notimp,