Obama’s State Dept. Nominee: North Korea's Kim Jong-il ‘Smart, Capable,’ ‘Not a Lunatic’
President Obama’s nominee to a top State Department post is one of the few American diplomats to have met North Korea’s Kim Jong-il, whom she later described as “smart, capable and supremely confident.”
Wendy Sherman traveled to Pyongyang in 2000 in her capacity as counselor to then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Visiting South Korea four years later – when she was no longer in government – Sherman had positive things to say about the reclusive Stalinist leader.
“He’s not a lunatic, nor is he psychiatrically ill, but he has an inflated sense of power,” Seoul’s JoongAng Ilbo newspaper quoted Sherman as telling students at a leading women’s university in March 2004.
Obama nominated Sherman on July 1 as undersecretary for political affairs, the State Department’s third-ranking position.
- Patrick Goodenough's blog
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Seems like she is describing
Submitted by Dan The Man 2 on Wed, 07/06/2011 - 4:58pm.
Seems like she is describing President Obama.
The meeting will be worser than this...
Submitted by upcountrywater on Wed, 07/06/2011 - 5:04pm.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7h3GPc_yMCE
You Didn't Build That.
Great. Another diplobat.
Submitted by SickofLibs on Wed, 07/06/2011 - 6:12pm.
Obama's master plan is slowly but surely coming into focus now.
BTW, since she was "nominated", does this imply Congress has to approve it?
No longer demonizing the demons
Submitted by Galvanic on Thu, 07/07/2011 - 12:29pm.
Obama promised to "re-set" American foreign policy by convincing adversaries that we're (a) friendlier and (b) we'll respect them. The theory goes that if we no longer treat Kim Chong-il as a bad guy, he'll stop acting like a bad guy and we'll get along better. Same with Assad, Achmedjinedad, etc. (Apparently, Qadhafy has been kicked off that list.)
Neville Chamberlain had a similar naive approach to foreign relations, with predictably bad outcomes.
The last time I chaired a psychiatry resident forensics seminar,
Submitted by drsamherman on Wed, 07/06/2011 - 7:03pm.
I asked each resident to choose a well known international leader to do a mental health evaluation based on publicly available information gleaned from news media and standard reference sources including online services.
A third year senior resident chose Kim Jong Il. When I asked what motivated her choice, she told me that she thought Kim Jong Il was a textbook case of narcissism, sociopathy and dissociative disorder. She very carefully broke down her analysis based on how he leads the country to starvation and desperation, while emphasizing the Stalinesque need for worship and attention. She added a very concise sub-analysis of North Korea's sporadic forays into paranoia with the nuclear threats and the bribery it demands for silence. All in all, her analysis was brilliantly supported and frankly refreshing.
That KJI is not mentally ill comes as a surprise to so many psychiatry residents and fellows that have engaged in the forensic exercises that are a critical part of training in our medical specialty. We have an unbroken line of information and insight on this character going back over 40 years. At nearly every forensic exercise where he is mentioned, the conclusions drawn on the available evidence point to those three common features found by the third year resident. Call it diagnosis by unanimous agreement.
Dr. Sam
Submitted by Radical1979 on Wed, 07/06/2011 - 7:16pm.
The description of North Korea's forays into paranoia with the nuclear threats and the bribery it demands for silence actually sound as if the country is making use of a political ploy that rewards it for using. Crazy like a fox as my father used to say.
I guess a fuzzy psychotherapist would describe it as...
Submitted by drsamherman on Wed, 07/06/2011 - 8:03pm.
....an addictive personality, per se. Kim Jong Il is quite addicted to the attention that comes with rattling the nuclear sabre, and he only disappears until he needs more attention.
The dissociative component arises from the paranoia and manifests itself in actions like sinking South Korean vessels and shelling areas along the border due to some imagined threat.
Most sociopathic schizophrenics are very, very clever and do not believe anyone will ever catch them in the act. That combination is what makes you NEVER turn your back on them.
So the Comrade Chairman nominates a fellow commie...
Submitted by Dave. on Wed, 07/06/2011 - 7:38pm.
...to the third highest post over at comrade Broom Hilda's Foggy Bottom, and this nominee, who once worked for comrade All-wrong, thinks a fellow-traveling commie, Kim Dung-Hill, Dear Leader and Lord of the Norks, is the greatest thing since borscht and vodka.
Wow, what a snoozer.
-Dave
Vote for the American in November
Can't remember the name
Submitted by jon_torlin on Thu, 07/07/2011 - 12:34am.
Who was the doofus that was saying that the MB wasn't a threat and that they were secular?
-Jon
No, he's not a lunitic
Submitted by CobraMan on Wed, 07/06/2011 - 7:49pm.
No, he's not a lunatic. He just believes that his father, by himself, fought off the entire UN army by turning pine cones in hand grenades.
The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States. The US Constitution
Unless you're a fetus. The US Supreme Court
Or Anwar al-Awlaki.