Today marks the 10th anniversary of the passing of North Korea's orginal dictator, Kim Il Sung. He's dead, but he's still North Korea's Supreme Eternal Leader and main focus of propoganda. Not bad for a dead guy. His son, Kim Jong Il, has done the seemingly impossible and actually made his father look relatively good. Since his father's demise he's managed quite a lot.

North Korea has suffered a decade of economic decline, lost at least a million people to famine and is diplomatically isolated as a result of its attempts to build nuclear weapons.

Kim leads the North as the chairman of the National Defense Commission and the supreme commander of the 1.1-million-strong Korean People's Army. He uses the ideology "Songun" -- or military first -- to justify the army's domination of the state...

South Korean Defense Minister Cho Young-gil told parliament on Wednesday that the North has been building and deploying ballistic missiles with a range of 2,400 miles -- capable of reaching U.S. military targets in Hawaii and Guam. He said it was also testing engines for longer-range missiles...

Kim Jong-il, 62, inherited power from his father in the first communist dynastic succession. The elder Kim has been named "Eternal President" and all adults in the country of 23 million people wear a mandatory Kim Il-sung or Kim Jong-il lapel badge.