Kim Jong Il photos offend

Your Dec. 19 article about the North Korean dictator’s death was appalling in its tribute.

Because of him and his father, North Korea is rightly called the most repressive nation on Earth. He was a wicked, evil tyrant who murdered 2 to 3 million of his own people by starvation in order to enrich his military, and put tens of thousands in his gulags because of their political and religious ideology (especially Christians). The official estimate is that 200,000 souls today live in hellish conditions, brutalized and tortured by his gulags. He is another Hitler.

Often those fortunate enough to escape North Korea have learned their entire extended families have been thrown into gulags. Most die quickly.

This man was more evil than Saddam Hussein and much more evil than any of these Arab leaders being thrown out of office today. Yet you publish only flattering diplomatic pictures of his few appearances with international dignitaries. Perhaps this kind of journalism is what follows from the world’s current religion of relative truth: There is no such thing as evil unless that evil is that there is solid truth.

Suzanne Nyberg

Mead