World's worst dictator?
Foreign Policy Magazine says it's North Korea's Kim Jong Il -- "a personality-cult-cultivating isolationist with a taste for fine French cognac" who "has pauperized his people, allowed famine to run rampant and thrown hundreds of thousands in prison camps -- all while spending his country's precious few resources on a nuclear program."
Since 1955, the official religion of North Korea has been Juche. This is a political ideology created by the previous ruler (and Kim Jong-Il's father), Kim Il-sung. It emphasizes patriotism, economic self-sufficiency, and national self-defense. Instead of worship to a supreme being, the focus is upon venerating the leader of the nation. There are currently 55 million practicioners of Juche worldwide, 23 million of which live in North Korea.
The magazine counts "at least 40 dictators" around the world today.
The rest of its annual ranking of the world's worst dictators:
2. Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe.
3. Than Shwe of Burma.
4. Omar Hassan Al-Bashir of Sudan.
5. Urbanguly Berdimuhamedov of Turkmenistan.
6. Isaias Afwerki of Eritrea.
7. Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan.
8. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran.
9. Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia.
10. Hu Jintao of China.
