On succession in North Korea, the hijab in Afghanistan, the presidency of Harvard, the Republican Party, and more
This was an eyebrow-raiser: “South Korea views the young daughter of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as his likely successor.” That would be extraordinary. As far as anyone knows, there has never been a female dictator — proper dictator. There have been bad queens, true. (A monarchy can be a kind of dictatorship.)
I have quoted the headline of a report from the Associated Press. No one knows for sure how many children Kim Jong Un has. Such information is often tightly controlled by dictatorships. We know, however, that he has a daughter about ten. We know that her name is Ju Ae. And we learned her name in remarkable fashion.
Kim Jong Un loves basketball. So did his father and predecessor, Kim Jong Il. Kim Jong Un formed a relationship with Dennis Rodman, the former NBA star. Rodman went to visit Kim in Pyongyang in 2013. At a press conference, Rodman spoke of Ju Ae, revealing her name.
Even intelligence agencies had not known this girl’s name.
(I write about this matter — and many others — in a book called “Children of Monsters: An Inquiry into the Sons and Daughters of Dictators.”)
Back to that AP report, which says,
The young daughter of . . . Kim Jong Un is seen as her father’s likely heir apparent, South Korea’s spy agency said Thursday, its first such assessment on the preteen who was unveiled to the outside world a little more than a year ago.
There has been intense outside debate and speculation about her . . . since she made her first public appearance in November 2022, when she watched a long-range missile test launch with her father.
That is a sweet father–daughter moment, is it not?
The girl has since accompanied her father to a slew of major public events, with state media calling her Kim Jong Un’s “most beloved” or “respected” child and churning out footage and photos proving her rising political standing and closeness with her father.
As the report notes, experts were surprised to see Kim Ju Ae in the North Korean media. Her father and her grandfather did not show up in the media until they were adults.
To say it once again, girls do not become dictators. Kim Jong Il had a daughter, Sol Song. He was very fond of her, and he had her work alongside him. By all accounts, she was capable, and she was also beautiful. But she was a girl, a daughter.
When the time came, Kim Jong Il tabbed his son Kim Jong Un.
Hafiz Assad had a daughter, Bushra. Same thing: Very fond of her; had her work alongside him; etc. But she was a girl. So was Marie-Denise Duvalier, daughter of Papa Doc. She would have been dictator, rather than Jean-Claude.
Can Kim Ju Ae be dictator of North Korea? I suppose we’ll see.
In Children of Monsters, I write,
Whether Jong Un will be the last dictator from his family, no one can know. It seems unlikely the dynasty can continue. Then again, it seemed unlikely that it could endure, strangling North Korea, for as long as it has.
One more note, before leaving this subject. Kim Il Sung, the founder of the dictatorship, did not intend a dynasty. But he had seen the cult of Stalin fall in the Soviet Union. He did not want the same fate for his own cult. As a prudent measure, he arranged for a son to take over.
• Out of Kabul, an AP article says,
The Taliban have arrested women in the Afghan capital for wearing “bad hijab,” a spokesman at the country’s Vice and Virtue Ministry said Thursday.
In my view, the Taliban is all vice, no virtue.
Continues the report,
It’s the first official confirmation of a crackdown on women who don’t follow the dress code imposed by the Taliban since they returned to power in 2021 and has echoes with neighboring Iran, which has enforced mandatory hijab for decades.
What is “bad hijab” (as opposed to good hijab)? The Vice and Virtue spokesman didn’t say. But the government seems to prefer head-to-toe burqa, with slits for eyes.
I think of Masih Alinejad, the great women’s-rights campaigner — human-rights campaigner — from Iran. I wrote about her in 2021. I will quote a couple of paragraphs from that piece:
Why do they hate her so? And why do they care so much about the hijab? This is a complicated, multifaceted question, but Masih gives it a shot. Women carry the mullahs’ ideology, she says. They wear it around their head. In their very persons, they advertise that “this is an Islamic republic.” If women go without a hijab, they are saying, “We don’t accept your ideology or your right to rule.” This is both insulting and threatening, to ruling men.
These men, says Masih, “hate women who are aware of their rights. They hate women who learn to say no.” The obedience — the submission — of women is central to the pride and power of “revolutionary” — of Islamist — men.
More than anyone else, Masih Alinejad has taught me that a hijab is more than a piece of cloth. It is a powerful and essential tool of oppression, in an Islamist society.
• About Claudine Gay, who just resigned the presidency of Harvard, there are a thousand things to say. People have said most of them. Let me recommend a column by Bret Stephens — nervy and correct: “Claudine Gay and the Limits of Social Engineering at Harvard.” I will contribute merely one thought (for now).
In America, we often treat people as group members, rather than individuals. This opens up a terrible can of worms. To treat people as individuals is not only right, in my judgment — it makes things a great deal easier.
Say a university president has to resign. If she is viewed as an individual, her resignation is no insult to millions of others who share her race, sex, or what have you.
A sticky, never-ending subject — and all too American.
• From the Washington Post, a report headed “How Trump reignited his base and took control of the Republican primary.” I will quote a couple of lines about the Club for Growth, which had opposed the former president, briefly:
The Club initiated outreach to broker a truce with Trump, according to multiple people familiar with the situation. They would no longer be attacking him and suggested they might even help, two of those people said.
Yes. I think of a phrase from Teddy Roosevelt: “I could carve a better backbone out of a banana.”
• A word of two from Donald Trump:
Millions and millions of people want this man to be president — again. This includes many in the media. They have other options — Republican options. But they don’t want them. This is a fact that, glaring though it is, is insufficiently assimilated.
• Jesse Madden is a member of the University of Michigan football team. He is the grandson of the late John Madden, the legendary football coach and television personality. There is a popular video-game series called “Madden NFL.” I will quote from an article about Jesse:
“My teammates and I were just playing Madden when you called,” Jesse . . . told a reporter a couple days before Monday’s Rose Bowl game against Alabama. “For me, it’s not crazy because it’s all I’ve known my whole life.”
• Thomas Ahern has written a book. He was the CIA station chief in Tehran and a hostage, all those years ago. The Washington Post has published an article about Ahern and his book. I would like to quote something he has written:
My reaction was mixed when I was offered a tape of Schubert’s 5th symphony. [The captors — the hostage-takers — offered this tape.] I almost turned it down because the piece was a favorite of my mother, and I feared that listening to it would cost me the equanimity that was still shaky after the abuses of the first months.
Music carries powerful associations — associations outside the music itself. Associations for which the music is not responsible. This is a subject for long articles or books — and I am bidding you a fine weekend. Thank you for joining me today.
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