New Delhi: North Korea’s Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un was last seen on 11 April. Since then, speculations about his disappearance started, especially when he wasn’t seen on 15 April — the birth anniversary of North Korea’s founder. His sudden disappearance has sparked conspiracy theories on TV channels and even US President Donald Trump has spoken about it.
Why do people care if the leader of a poor country has disappeared or not?
Rumours of Kim’s disappearance have happened in the past as well. The lack of information from North Korea gives rise to these speculations. Additionally, North Korea is very important to the world — not because it does anything good but because it’s a nuisance.
North Korea’s population is 2.6 crore, about half of South Korea’s. It’s also much poorer than its neighbour. All made in Korea products are from South Korea and it is an important part of the global supply chain. However, North Korea still gets more attention than South. It is truly the only classical dictatorship in the whole world.
The world can’t ignore nuisance states and their leaders. North Korea is a nuisance state with nuclear weapons and long-range missiles. It even claims its missile can reach parts of US also.
The country is also involved in illegal trade of these missiles. It is believed that Pakistan’s nuclear physicist Abdul Qadeer Khan bought missiles from North Korea in exchange for rice and possibly some nuclear technology.
Also read: How Kim Jong Un’s uncle has become suddenly relevant after 4 decades abroad
Learning to cause nuisance
Some other countries are also trying to cause the kind of nuisance North Korea is causing. Pakistan also has nuclear weapons and its stability is debatable. Pakistan doesn’t need to threaten the west in case there is a conflict, it can just threaten to attack India.
Iran, the country which has been blacklisted by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) for state sponsorship of terrorism along with North Korea, is also believed to be trying the latter’s strategy. Iran will threaten to attack Israel if it gets nuclear weapons, and that is enough to threaten the rest of the world.
Kim Jong Un’s disappearance has made the world afraid about North Korea becoming even more unstable.
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Who will be his successor? Does he have a sibling? If not, will this be the end of dictatorship in NK?