This is a classic realpolitik reasoning, similar to what prevented France and UK from having Hitler killed asap. And guess what? Things just kept on going worse and at the end of WWII half Europe was given to Stalin (that actually initially planned to share it with Hitler, before Hitler's folly screwed up their plan, and was never punished for this, he eventually grabbed what he wanted with UK and USA permission instead).

So an assassination, even with its worst consequences, would just be a lesser bad. In Iran's case it would be necessary to kill the most integralist ayatollahs too, leaving alive the moderate ones, and obviously also the highest ranking pasdaran officers, so a well organized conspiracy would be necessary. But in North Korea, Kim's death would at the very least bring the limited positive effects of Stalin's death in the former USSR.

This is a classic realpolitik reasoning, similar to what prevented France and UK from having Hitler killed asap. And guess what? Things just kept on going worse and at the end of WWII half Europe was given to Stalin (that actually initially planned to share it with Hitler, before Hitler's folly screwed up their plan, and was never punished for this, he eventually grabbed what he wanted with UK and USA permission instead).

So an assassination, even with its worst consequences, would just be a lesser bad. In Iran's case it would be necessary to kill the most integralist ayatollahs too, leaving alive the moderate ones, and obviously also the highest ranking pasdaran officers, so a well organized conspiracy would be necessary. But in North Korea, Kim's death would at the very least bring the limited positive effects of Stalin's death in the former USSR.

The thing is, Kim Jong-Il is completely benign and actually pretty laughable. Nobody takes anything he says seriously because under his leadership, North Korea is a poor country with failing infrastructure and an army enormous in size, but with pathetic funding. Every so often, he'll grumble about firing a nuclear missile, but he never will.

Any successors he may have can hardly be more harmless than the crazy old man who leads the country today.

And you can hardly compare him to Stalin. Stalin ruled the second most powerful nation in the world with an iron fist, and tolerated no rebellion or resistance of any kind. People feared him. More than that, people respected him. Kim Jong-Il rules a small poor country with a failing economy, and more people laugh at him than anything else. I can't imagine anyone laughing at Stalin if he said he would use nuclear missiles on the United States.

Stalin wasn't assassinated. Kim Jong Ils natural death (which probably isn't far off) will hopefully be good for N.Korea, assassination almost certainly wouldn't be, it would be a very legitimate casus belli.

Also you think there would be any moderate ayatollahs left after you assassinate half of them? They'll all become radicals.

Maybe he's harmless for the West, but he's even worse than Stalin for his people, he's slowly starving them to death, and not being intelligent as his father, and even less than Stalin, there is a higher risk that he tries something extremely stupid and disastrous. And South Korea is close, even a preemptive nuking would mean decennia of increased tumour rates also in the South (besides killing poor innocent Northern people that have no guilt for having been born in a tragic and ridiculous dictatorship).

So killing Kim now, then sending international aid, is the best solution to save his people.

This is the most hilarious thing I have ever seen:

http://www.korea-dpr.com/reunification.htm

[...]

I know Stalin died for a stroke and most probably left to die (but back then doctors could have done very little anyway) and what's curious, lower classes mourned him sincerely until his crimes were fully revealed. OTOH North Koreans are almost starving to death and I'm quite sure they wouldn't mind if somebody accelerated Kim's departure.

1) You think it's the ordinary N.Korean that matters in this? It's the establishment and especially the army.  They won't simply relinquish power because Il is dead.

Moderate ayatollahs aren't stupid, and seeing the integralist ones killed while they were spared, they'd be quite quick to understand that the wind has changed.

2) If somebody went and shot all the conservatives in the senate of the USA do you think the liberals would say 'Oh what a lovely chance to get a progressive agenda through!'? Same situation basically.

BTW using Austrian rifles, besides their superior quality, is also to avoid a possible direct link to USA. Anyway, it would be better to outsource operations to Mossad, integralists couldn't by any means hate Israel more than now...   

3) It wouldn't matter who did it, the shit-storm would be similiar.