BAD GUYS

I was staring at this picture of "our dear Leader" -- that's what the people call the "Supreme Leader" who controls everyone and everything in North Korea. Even if President Obama gets Russia to agree to limiting the development of nuclear weapons, will it ever be possible to get nuclear weapons out of the hands of this guy?

Kim Jong II -- one look at him and you feel his petulance, greed, and anger. He hangs over America and the rest of the world with illogical threats, and ignores UN sanctions -- how can we be safe, when a man like this has a country obeying his every whim.

Is he ill, on Dialysis, with a few months, or a few years to live? Am I wrong to hope he doesn't last long? The son whom he's named as his successor could be even more dangerous.

We know very little about Kim Jong-un (that's the son's name), except that he went to school in Switzerland. He's 27 or 28, and yes, he looks like his father, like a twin almost, with the same petulance, greed, and anger on his face.

This young man's elder brother, "the bulldog" his father calls him, according to the predigested, planned, planted public relations reports that our magazines and newspapers publish -- Kim Jong-chul, the elder brother, was thought to be the successor in 2007, but Daddy changed his mind.

We don't know why, or if the brothers love each other, or are rivals. We only know that Jong II was married once legally. With his wife and three mistresses, he made five children -- three sons , and two barely-mentioned, obviously unimportant daughters.

The oldest son is out of favor, for drunken, violent behavior. The sons have different Mothers -- two have been reported as dead. The third, formerly their father's secretary, is currently treated as Jong II's wife.

The more reading I do about Jong, his mistresses (who died when?), his favorite adviser who was put to death last month, and the luxuries, the palaces, the life style of this angry petulant-faced family, the more perturbed I am.

When you have a serious problem with a neighbor, and you can't move to another town, and the neighbor won't move -- what can you do? You have to act civilly. Say "hello" when you see him. You try to do some neighborly thing that wins you some kind of acknowledgment -- a nod, or perhaps a faint smile.

How can we not worry about this guy? I'm counting on Hillary and Obama, the best two talkers in the world, to keep talking with him -- not cut him off, the way the Bush administration did. Talking with him, inviting the "Supreme Leader" of North Korea to UN meetings, passing Jong the drink, or cup of tea is what they're doing.

I'm thinking about other trouble spots -- the unsolvable, tricky problem of Iran. And Pakistan, and Mexico. Talking, communicating, meeting with them -- that's what Hillary and President Obama are doing, and it's the only way the neighborhood will be safe.