The Issue: The death of Kim Jong Il, North Korea‘s leader since 1994, and the succession of his son.
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With the death of the dictator of North Korea, the situation on the Korean peninsula needs to be very carefully monitored (“Korean ‘Stability’ Is a Loser’s Game,” Benny Avni, PostOpinion, Dec. 22).
North Korea is a very unstable country, and there will probably be increased tensions. The North Korean government must understand that it cannot attempt to cause any type of confrontation.
As we approach 2012, the world has yet another worry to deal with on the Korean peninsula.
John Amato
Fresh Meadows
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I’ve heard accolades heaped on Kim Jong Il, like he was brilliant, cunning, loved Michael Jordan and wanted to be a movie director because he loved American movies.
Get real: Kim was a murderous dictator. His people are starving, with some 43 percent of his nation’s population at the starvation level, and most of the country’s budget is spent on the military and the ruling class. Remember the dictator, not the icon American liberals are portraying.
Jim Lynam
River Edge, NJ
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Mao Zedong, Josef Stalin, Saddam Hussein, Slobodan Milosevic, Osama bin Laden, Moammar Khadafy and Kim Jong Il are all gone.
We should have world peace now, right?
Tom Thompson
Loveland, Ohio
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Two leaders have recently left this Earth — one maybe to the heavens, the other to hell. It’s curious how the death of the good Vaclav Havel is overshadowed by the death of the evil Kim.
Havel was a prince of a man, for he broke the chains of Communism and gave his people freedom. Kim was just a prince of darkness.
Gary Schwartz
Fort Lee, NJ
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If the leader’s son, Kim Jong Un, tries a “like father, like son” trick, the United States, South Korea and much of the Pacific Rim are in for a rough time.
Kim Jong Un is in his 20s and has a lot more drive and energy than his long-ill father. He will listen much more closely to the Chinese and is not afraid of the Russians.
This now becomes a major foreign-policy issue for the 2012 presidential election. The candidates had better be paying very close attention.
Tom Cahill
Manhattan
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North Koreans are forced to cry in honor of their fallen leader.
They should be crying because their country is poverty-stricken and they are ruled by maniacs who have the power to unleash a nuclear bomb.
Good riddance to bad rubbish.
D. Fleming
Sea Girt, NJ
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The accomplishments of this savage must be grudgingly acknowledged. Kim kept his people in a state of servitude and fear for decades and erected a curtain of secrecy over his mysterious empire, despite the development of cell- phones and computers.
He used scant resources to build a feared military and develop a nuclear weapon. Although he starved millions of his people, he appears to have enjoyed the reverence of a large segment of North Koreans, as they have been fed a steady diet of propaganda.
It would be encouraging to believe that North Korea could use this occasion to initiate a return of power to the people, but that does not appear possible.
The immediate future appears likely to hold continued suffering for one of the most oppressed people of the earth.
Oren Spiegler
Upper Saint Clair, Pa.
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Kim could have been a great leader who really accomplished something.
He could have unified Korea or at least made peace with South Korea. He could have developed his nation economically, instead of having a nation wracked by famine.
He could have built the reputation as a conciliator instead of a war-monger.
But he squandered it all on fast cars, exotic food and a strong military with nuclear weapons. His main problem is that he cared more about himself than his country
K. Zimmerman
Huntington Beach, Calif.