Why did the U.S. remove North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terror?

Technically it was because North Korea agreed to all the Bush administration's nuclear inspection demands - including the dismantling of its Yongbyon nuclear plant and allowing inspectors back in.

But why would stubborn North Korea suddenly be co-operative? And why would the U.S. believe promises of an untrustworthy regime that repeatedly breaks promises?

The answer might be Kim Jong Il's health.

Rumours have circulated about Kim's health since early September when, for the first time, he missed a big military parade and was said to have suffered a stroke. He's not been seen since.

Then, a week or so ago, photographs of him inspecting a women's military unit were released - and were immediately questioned in South Korea. Foliage was too lush for this time of year - the photos were likely taken in the summer.

"Dear Leader," as Kim likes to be addressed (hell, he insists on it), has been out of circulation for so long there's even speculation he might be dead - that a double is standing in for him.

Fragile health may be a reason why the U.S. agreed to remove the regime from its terror list. More significantly, it may be why those filling in for Kim Jong Il made the nuclear agreement without his overt presence.

A thing about an absolute dictatorship is once the dictator is gone, the dynamics of the tyranny change. Whoever replaces him represents a new page. The change may not be good, but it is invariably different.

It's something the U.S. - or President George W. Bush, if you like - failed to remember when Iraq was invaded. With Saddam Hussein deposed, the dynamics of Iraq would change, with an American presence no longer needed.

Whoever succeeds Kim Jong Il won't be the fruitcake he is. He has three sons from two marriages, who've reportedly been so indulged and spoiled they're beyond redemption to succeed him, as he succeeded his dad, Kim Il Sung, who died in 1994.

Kim Jong Il is great fun to lampoon. This is a bit macabre because he's a frightful tyrant who's made North Korea hell on Earth for most of its 23 million people. Starvation and repression are a constant reality. Only the military and security matter - and Dear Leader's personal indulgences.

Born in Siberia, 1941, when his dad was exiled in the USSR, Kim Jong Il is closing in on age 70. He's always been a movie nut, and is said to own 20,000 videos to go along with his 17 palaces and hundreds of automobiles.

He's said to spend $500,000 a year on Hennessy Cognac, and keeps an ever-changing stable of young women as his "Pleasure Brigade."

Kim also heads a list compiled by the London Times of the most decadent dictators in modern history. Not necessarily the most ruthless or cruel, just the most decadent.

Others on the decadent list, in descending order are Fernando Marcos of the Philippines, Romania's Nicolae Ceausescu, Uganda's Idi Amin, Russia's Josef Stalin, Iraq's Saddam Hussein, Zaire's deposed president Mobuto, and Indonesia's Suharto.

All had decadent traits and all, except Kim, are now dead.

If rumours of Kim Jong Il's death are not true, they likely soon will be.

Maybe the U.S. knows this, and is preparing for more normal relations with a country that has been dominated and abused by someone who cannot be controlled.

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