North Korea's Kim Jong Un wages defector crackdown

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2012/01/kim-jong-il-death-new-north-korean-leader-kim-jong-un-crackdown-on-defectors.html


In North Korea, a new Kim may be in command but the same old human rights violations are still in play, including a renewed lethal crackdown on defectors, according to South Korean media reports.
Weeks after 20-something Kim Jong Un assumed power following his father Kim Jong Il’s sudden death by heart attack last month, border guards have began shooting down would-be defectors who try to flee the impoverished nation.

Apparently a tactic to display toughness to the generals and the populace, it is an indication that Jong Un will be every bit as ruthless, perhaps even more ruthless, than his father. One can only hope that he also exceeds his father in stupidity and manages to misstep here and there.

North Korea would take a full decade to merge into South Korea, but it should be the ultimate goal of any US foreign policy effort. That could also be decades away, maybe even a hundred years, and Jong Un's harshness and brutality could delay it even further, or perhaps hasten it.