Prize: Despot of the Year 2005: The National Republic designates its first 'Despot of the Year Award'

T. A. Frank, a writer for the prestigious leftwing monthly, The New Republican, does an occasional column called "Today in Despotism," after careful analysis and comparison of the world's tyrannical leaders of nations - and, after designating these four Honorable Mentons - Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe; Than Shwe, Burma / Myanmar; Fidel Castro, Cuba; Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran. One tier up, he selects two Finalists - Alexander Lukashenko, Belarus; and Muammar Qadafi, Libya.

Winner

Kim Jong Il, North Korea. North Korea's leader takes top honors this year. It hardly seems fair since, with Kim in the running, no one else will ever have a chance. Nevertheless, despotism is despotism, and Kim has amassed a record that aspiring dictators can only envy. From nuclear proliferation to famine, Kim has dotted all of his "i"s and crossed all of his "t"s in the classics of tyranny. Kim oversaw nuclear weapons negotiations this year, agreeing to conditions under which he would begin to dismantle his weapons. A day later, North Korea announced that the deal was off unless the country could first have a light-water reactor. When summer rolled around, Kim sent millions of city dwellers into the countryside to transplant rice. And Kim also prepared to groom his own sons as successors. Meanwhile, his commitment to innovation in despotic rhetoric has not faltered--at least if the pronouncements of the North Korean news agency can be taken as evidence. A few highlights from the past year:

Cheney is hated as the most cruel monster and bloodthirsty beast, as he has drenched various parts of the world in blood. (June)

Japan is so mean, despicable and wicked that it is not the country which the DPRK can deal with anywhere. (July)

Japan's attempt to buy a responsible position at the UN is little short of a clumsy bid of an illiterate country peddler bereft of any reason and people's mindset. (October)

And the quote that put North Korea over the top, from this past June:

The chief executive of the United States was reported to have met daily Chosun Ilbo, journalist Kang Chol-hwan, an alleged defector from the North, at the White House on 15 June and talked about "human rights situation" in the DPRK.

Explicitly speaking, we do not know such word as "defector".

If there be any, they are just a handful of hooligans and criminals who are not in a position to look up at the clear blue sky over the country with an easy mind for the crimes committed against it and its people.

It is hard to expect to hear anything from such human scum and we, therefore, do not care at all about whatever nonsense they talk.

Given the fact that the chief executive of the world's only "superpower" did sit face to face with such a human trash and conferred with him over "human rights performance" and other "serious matters", it is not hard to guess the political level and stature of the present US administration.

The prize is a free subscription to TNR Online. Kim or his representatives should kindly write to receive details: online@tnr.com, attn: human trash/human scum.

- T. A. Frank writes regularly for TNR Online.

Thanks to you, Mr Frank, and to The New Republic for maintinaing your column. Too bad TNR requires registration to access its pages, which cuts out a lot of readers. - Politicarp