WHAT KIM IS
BY DAVID CLOUD
SEE: https://www.wayoflife.org/friday_church_news/19-24.php; republished below in full unedited for informational, educational and research purposes:
(Friday Church News Notes, June 15, 2018, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) - The following is excerpted from “What Kim Is” National Review, Jun. 9, 2018: “Let’s remind ourselves of whom, exactly, President Trump [met in Singapore]. For Kim Jong-un is no ordinary man. The Dear Leader occupies the summit of a hierarchical system of some 25 million people whose lives are controlled by his central government in Pyongyang. Some years ago, Christopher Hitchens described the ruling juche ideology this way: ‘It is based on totalitarian “military first” mobilization, is maintained by slave labor, and instills an ideology of the most unapologetic racism and xenophobia.’ ... Kim, his father and grandfather, and the regime they direct have given no indication, ever, that they recognize the dignity and worth of human life. Some 36,000 Americans died fighting off the North and its Chinese ally between 1950 and 1953. The North Korean government caused a famine in the 1990s that killed somewhere between hundreds of thousands and more than 1 million people. Another hundred thousand or so are imprisoned, right now, in the North Korean gulag where slaves are starved, beaten, tortured, and killed. Even high-ranking officials are subject to ‘liquidation’ by sickening methods, including execution by a firing squad of anti-aircraft batteries. ... What Kim Jong-un is, is a monster. And that monstrousness informs his statecraft. It influences the means he adopts to remain in power. It leads him to deceive, dissemble, brutalize and build a nuclear deterrent. ... Singapore is an opportunity for Trump to size up an adversary. At best it will inspire Kim to take verifiable steps toward disarmament. ... But as you watch the proceedings, do not allow the following to happen: Do not permit the smiles and handshakes to obscure the evil reality of Kim Jong-un--or the memory of his victims.”