So Long and Thanks for All the Cash

I’ve seen a number of different estimates of how many South Korean taxpayer dollars Roh Moo Hyun sent to Kim Jong Il and his regime during Roh’s term in office.  Starting from this 2006 estimate of approximately $3 billion (based on an approximate average exchange ratio of 1,000 won per dollar) and extrapolating about subsequent transfers, a rough estimate of $4 billion seems fair.

Now consider: Kim Jong Il, who never actually bothered to visit Roh and granted him just one brief audience in Pyongyang, was thoughtful enough to have one of the minions he pays to compose those verbose paeans to him write this:

On hearing the news that former President Roh Moo Hyun died in an accident, I express profound condolences to widow Kwon Ryang Suk and his bereaved family. [KCNA]

And that is all. Counting the name of Roh and his widow as one word each, that’s $4 billion divided by 24 words, which comes down to exactly one word of thanks for each $1,666,666 His Porcine Majesty received.  And who else thinks that the use of the word “accident” is pregnant with an uneasy vagueness?
Pity Roh Moo Hyun, and remember him as a man who meant well.  If the disruption of his mourning with a nuclear test or two wasn’t enough to clarify the contempt in which Kim Jong Il held him, let the humiliating brevity of Kim’s passing remark be Roh’s epitaph.