Kim Jong Il's worldwide personality cult

Last night, it was reported that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has pancreatic cancer. While there are no official sources confirming this (and, as always, the news sources are citing "unidentified" officials from South Korea and the People's Republic of China), it wouldn't surprise me one bit considering the state of his appearances and health as of late. As well, this would obviously set off an interesting situation for the country's leadership, as it is expected that Kim's son, Kim Jong Un, will take over in the future.

There. One paragraph. That is pretty much all there is to say about this. So that's why it's interesting to me that some news reports not only go on longer than that, but continue to describe in detail Kim's history, actions, personality cult, and so forth -- there's even a bit of tabloid-like speculation mixed in there that may or may not be true.

People keep talking about the Kim personality cult in that country, about how they have gigantic statues of Kim Il Sung (Kim Jong Il's father and original leader) and like to have portraits of either/both of the Kim leaders everywhere. People are aware that there is a worship-like thing going on surrounding the Kims and that every aspects of the North Koreans' lives are supposedly centered around Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il.

However, sometimes I think that the cult personality covers most of the outside world as well.

Now, I'm not saying that people all over the world do things according to the wishes of Kim Jong Il or that people see the Kims as saviors. Hell, most people don't even like Kim Jong Il. But despite his rather strange way of doing things, he has somehow achieved near-celebrity status in the parts of the world that he does not control. Obviously this is in part because of his never-ending threats to destroy the US and take over the world (despite the fact that he can't even take over the Korean peninsula at this point). But the bigger reason for this is how the world just eats up everything he does and reports on it like he's some sort of celebrity.

Out of all the people to get celebrity-like coverage, he might have the smallest fan base out of everyone; his fan base's size makes George W. Bush's fan base look gigantic in comparison. Besides a handful of visits (mostly summits with Japan and South Korea, and some meetings with the People's Republic of China), Kim Jong Il hasn't really ventured outside his own little nuclear-laden hermit kingdom.

Yet, everything he does or declares gets reported, no matter how idiotic it may be. Hell, he could release a statement declaring that he has nuclear missiles aimed at Springfield and will wipe out Evergreen Terrace next week, and it'd be reported and posted all over the major news networks.

Sure, he's making himself an easy target for the butt of jokes, but sometimes with all the media obsession over whatever he does makes me wonder if his personality cult covers most of the world rather than only in North Korea. Yes, it's handy to know what the hell goes on in his country and what the hell he's up to, but the extent of coverage that he gets is just incredible compared to some of the people who are just as bad, like Saddam Hussein or Osama bin Laden. We seem to know a hell of a lot more about Kim Jong Il than either of those two guys; hence, the cult of personality seems to cover us too.