A World Without Kim Jong-il?

From Muck: We are seeing some interesting reactions from officials in Washington to the news that Kim Jong-il recently had a stroke. Far from celebrating his potential demise, there is growing concern over the chaos and instability that his death might cause. Despite his many faults and quirks, Kim Jong-il was nonetheless a reasonably well known quantity. As the New York Times points out there is grave concern within the intelligence community over who would be in control of the nuclear program. The following quote shows just how complicated the nuclear issue has become.

“You know,” one senior intelligence official who would not speak on the record because he monitors the Pakistani arsenal said, “we used to have this great distinction between ‘states with nukes’ that we could deter the old-fashioned way, and ‘groups with nukes’ that we couldn’t deter.” But today, he said, “our biggest problem may be groups within states” that could take advantage of political chaos to seize what they need, either to sell it or to win a struggle for leadership of the country.