Right Pundits

The Drudge Report tonight has a screaming headline: Ding Dong Kim Jong Il dead at 69 in North Korea. The reference is to the Wizard of Oz when Dorothy throws a pail of water on the Wicked Witch of the West. She melts and her former enslaved minions hail Dorothy as a hero and chant ding dong, the witch is dead!

Kim Jong Il is dead reports Korean state media, and his death is to be celebrated around the world by all freedom-loving people. He has literally enslaved his population for the production of food to feed his extensive military apparatus in the country. The agricultural collectives are forced labor camps without fences. They don’t need fences inside North Korea because there is nothing else to do there but work in the fields or die.

There are two classes of people in North Korea which were created by Dear Leader, Kim Jong Il and his father over the last 40 years. There is the military, estimated at 5% of the population. And there is the other 95% of the population which is perennially starving or existing in a near-starving condition.

This is what we know. There is a lot we do not know about North Korea because it is the most secret and reclusive state in the world. There is one media — state media, no opportunity for journalists to travel in or out of the country, and no trade agreements with anyone except communist China.

Kim Jong Il died of a heart attack on a train trip, according to their official report. Nobody knows if those reported circumstances are true or not, but regardless his death is one of the highlights of 2011 for the people of North Korea and for anyone in the world who cares about the human misery there. His death is potentially more important for world peace and clearly more important for human liberty than the death of Osama Bin Laden.

And yet Barack Obama, the President of the United States and default leader of the free world has nothing to say about it of any substance. His press office did release a statement but it is a mushy collection of diplomatic words that have no meaning. This was an opportunity for Obama to seize the mantle of liberty, like Ronald Reagan did so well in the 1980s, and Bill Clinton did in the 1990s, but he failed.

The White House statement:

“We are closely monitoring reports that Kim Jong-Il is dead. The President has been notified, and we are in close touch with our allies in South Korea and Japan. We remain committed to stability on the Korean peninsula, and to the freedom and security of our allies.”

Fail.

Curious as to reader thoughts. What would you say if you were leader of the free world on this great day? Meanwhile see the North Korean official media announcing the news on their one television station.