12: Kim Jong Il

By many accounts, North Korea's dictator is in bad shape after suffering a stroke in August. But the Dear Leader still presides over a handful of nuclear weapons, an arsenal of long-range missiles and a million-man Army—all in a corner of the globe where several of the world's biggest economies come together. Experts warn that a weakened Kim could in fact feel compelled to prove his toughness by threatening the outside world, and in recent weeks Pyongyang has halted its rapprochement with South Korea and torpedoed talks aimed at getting it to give up its nuclear weapons. Whether strong or weak, he's still dangerous.