Don't Bet on North Korea's Collapse

Many pundits have spent the past several years writing obituaries for the demise of the Kim dynasty in North Korea, as they did in 1994 when the founder and "Great Leader," Kim Il-sung, died unexpectedly at an exclusive summer vacation villa. The founder's sudden death reinforced the belief that the communist regime would be sooner or later replaced in one way or another.

But that was then. Today, no one can credibly say that the North, led by the "Dear Leader," Kim Jong-il, will be gone any time soon. Instead, the pundits who insisted on the end of the Kims are moving toward consensus on the continued existence of a tyrannical regime where freedom of information, assembly, and expression are banned. There is expected to be another Kim "Leader" of some sort.