Fidel Castro vs. Kim Il Sung

Fidel Castro was a global celebrity, with his khaki military suits, beard and big Cuban cigars making him instantly recognizable. The U.S. CIA once set up a plan to cut his beard believing that Castro's leadership came from his beard. A sports lover, he was a baseball fan like many other Cubans. What the late North Korean leader Kim Il Sung did like to do as a hobby? Gun shooting? One can't instantly recall. Both people were dictators, but while Kim maintained his regime with an awe-inspiring sentiment, Castro did so with friendliness.

Kim set up numerous statues across his nation, but there is no statue of Castro in Cuba. Instead there is a statue of Che Guevara wearing a beret. Perhaps this is because Cuba has a deep Catholic tradition that idolization of a person in power wasn't easy. In a way, Castro and Che Guevara were like the holy duo. Che Guevara, an idealist, earned permanent life thanks to realist Castro, and Castro lived for as long as 90 years thanks to idealist Che Guevara.

Castro did not stop people complaining his regime from leaving. Since 1980 when some Cubans broke the door of Peru Embassy with a truck to ask for asylum, 125,000 Cubans have left the country. When Castro told people to leave in free will by opening up the Mariel port, the U.S. had to press him to block the harbor. A similar thing happened in the economic crisis of 1994. It was considered that Castro would control the pressure to his regime by not suppressing it and not easing it. This made Cuba less fearful than North Korea.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump called Castro a "brutal dictator." Then what would he call the Kim Il Sung family? Castro referred Cuba to an ant and the U.S. to an elephant, saying the ant cannot do anything until the elephant decide. Before Castro's death, the ant has survived in front of the elephant for 57 years. It is a miracle, but not a good one when considering North Korea.