Scary times !

The death of Kim Jong Il, the leader of the reclusive nation of North Korea, has sent it's neighbours into military alert as they wait for the reaction from the fourth biggest standing army in the world.
Kim Jong Il was venerated - almost as a deity - and it seems clear that he was grooming his youngest son - Kim Jong Un as his successor, but that had not progressed to the stage where the younger man was well known to the masses.

North Korea is perhaps the most unpredictable nation on this planet.  In 1950 it launched an invasion of South Korea and brought the United Nations into that war for South Korea's defence.   Three years later the war ceased by way of an armistice - but technically the two sides are still at war.

North Korea is a repressive regime.  This Communist nation rules by fear and millions of it's citizens have starved to death as successive " Great Leap forwards " have failed agriculture, and it even now barely exists, depending on food grants from other nations to feed it's people.

Attempts to coax it away from a nuclear arms race failed, and it now has an arsenal of nuclear weapons - and the means of delivering them by ICBM to a wide range of surrounding countries.   The leader's death will certainly make many people nervous, wondering just who now has a finger on the firing button.

The North Korean military history is ominous.  In a desperate search for income it has sold weapons to despotic regimes, dabbled in the drug trade - and been involved in counterfeiting the currency of other nations.   There have been other military excursions, including the blatant sinking of a South Korean naval vessel by use of a torpedo, leading to loss of life.

The danger facing the world today revolves around who emerges as the new leader.   A bevy of top generals will be a possible alternative to  Kim Jong Un, and if North Korea follows past precedent - it will generate a crisis with surrounding countries to focus public attention on a threat to the nation - and hide the power struggle.

There is great danger - and a great opportunity riding on this change of leadership.

If a wiser head emerges and sees that North Korea's problems are it's reclusive nature and inability to join with the community of nations - then there is the hope for change.   A less belligerent North Korea could deliver a better lifestyle for it's citizens - and come in from the cold.

On the other hand, a " no holds barred " struggle for power within it's closed society could create a nuclear holocaust.    It just depends whose finger eventually hovers above that button on the leader's desk !