Kim Jong-un and Baby Doc
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So Kim Jong-un is back in action after being "missing" for more than a month.
Something rather similar happened in Haiti in 1983 while I was on a work assignment there.
The then-dictator Jean Claude Duvalier disappeared from public view for a full two months, leading inevitably to rumours about serious health problems, a military coup, assassination, and so on.
On the streets of Port au Prince, blurred copies of a photo appeared showing a man lying in a coffin with a stake through his heart, voodoo style, though close inspection revealed he bore a suspicious resemblance to horror-film star Christopher Lee.
Then, suddenly, a much thinner Baby Doc appeared back at his palace to resume playing the viola and falling asleep during Cabinet meetings as per usual.
He had been on a strict diet at a remote health farm built specially for him.
Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Maybe.
Barry Kenyon
Chon Buri
