Interestingly, despite the hardline stance of South Korea’s president, as a ‘conciliatory gesture’, the south will not go ahead with Christmas lights along the armistice border. Maybe, in such uncertain times for their northern neighbour, it is more not to make South Korean military bases more visible to air attack.


The Guardian, being the Groniad, declared that North Korea was the world’s only communist monarchy. This misses the fact that Nicolae Ceaucescu adopted, in the 1970s, the royal symbols of orb and sceptre, in effect becoming a king to augment his despotism. Moreover, not all monarchies adhere to the succession of the first-born, as Cuba has demonstrated with Fidel Castro succeeded by his younger brother Raul. A correct statement would be that North Korea was the world’s only current primogeniture monarchy. What is unusual is that, for the first time, a communist country has gone through three generations of one family as successive leader.

It was reported that Kim Jong-Il died of a heart attack on his personal, armour-plated train. I wonder if it was as a result of surfeit of wild boar (as opposed to lampreys). What would really seal his royal status would be if he popped off while pooping, echoing the British and Hannoverian George II and indeed that other ‘king’ Elvis Presley.