North Korea’s “dear leader” Kim Jong-il passed away from a heart attack two days ago, according to state television.

The BBC’s obiturary is shockingly unbiased when in mentions the centrally planned economy in a section labelled “Famine”, though it unsurprisingly mitigates the role of that planning in causing the famine by mentioning the collapse of a second communist country – Russia:

In 1991, [Kim Jong-il] was elected supreme commander of the Korean People’s Army. Analysts believe he was given the position to counter potential resistance to an eventual succession.

By now, North Korea’s rigid centrally-controlled economy had slipped into an ever-deepening economic crisis exacerbated by the collapse of the country’s main trading partner, the Soviet Union.

Trade dried up and the regime even ran out of fuel for factories and offices.

Natural disasters led to crop failures and hundreds of thousands are believed to have died. Potential unrest was quashed by the authorities.

So while the man and the symbol have died and changed the BBC is still keen to ignore the fact that their preferred ideas caused the death of hundreds of thousands of people. The ideas the man held still live on.

Update: Guido’s picture story is worth a thousand words.