Abstract
A psychological profile was developed on North Korean leader Kim Jong‐il based on a South Korean psychiatrist’s evaluation of 14 personality disorders in DSM‐IV‐TR and of schizophrenic and psychotic symptoms. The psychiatrist, considered an expert on Kim Jong‐il’s behavior, completed the informant version of the standardized, DSM‐IV‐TR aligned, 225‐item Coolidge Axis II Inventory (CATI). The resulting profile was compared with a consensus profile based on five academicians whose expertise was Adolf Hitler, and a consensus profile of 11 informants, all former Iraqi nationals all of whom had an intimate knowledge of Saddam Hussein. The rank‐order correlation between Kim Jong‐il and Hitler and between Kim Jong‐il and Hussein was identical r = 0.76, p < 0.002. For the personality disorders, it appeared that a ‘big six’ emerged: sadistic, paranoid, antisocial, narcissistic, schizoid and schizotypal. All three dictators also showed evidence of psychotic thought processes. The implications of these findings for negotiation are discussed.