North Koreans who regularly deal with South Koreans indicate that Kim Jong Il is considered toast up north. The senior communist officials in the north are scrambling to find a way to survive the coming collapse of their police state. Among most northerners, there is great hatred of China, for rounding up and returning North Koreans who have fled to China. There is also distaste for recent South Korean governments, which have been willing to subsidize the North Korean police state, and keep it going. As more and more North Koreans find out the truth about their situation (previously North Korean propaganda had stressed that North Korea was the best of all possible worlds), the more popular the United States has become up north. The U.S. has consistently condemned the North Korean government, and the starving North Koreans appreciate that, as well as all the food aid they have received, that was clearly marked as from the United States. The North Korean government has long proclaimed that this American food aid was provided because the U.S. was frightened by the mighty North Korean armed forces. Cell phones and a break down in discipline have enabled more North Koreans to discover that this was all a lie as well.
