The Queen of Great Britain, Elizabeth the II has a few titles. In fact it takes two or three lines of this blog to list them all. However Her Majesty has nothing on Dennis Rodman's pal, Kim Jong-un. He is--take a deep breath--First Secretary of the Workers Party of Korea, presidium member of the central politburo of the Workers Party of Korea, Chairman of the Central Military Commission, First Chairman of the National Defense Commission of North Korea, and Supreme Commander of the Korean People's Army. In short, if you want to get something done in North Korea, he is the man you need to see.
His standing army is 1.1 million strong. He has an unknown quantity of biological and chemical weapons, a bunch of missiles, and a handful of nuclear warheads. He might also be bat shit crazy.
Over he last few month or so Mr. Kim has brought saber rattling to new heights on the Korean peninsula. He has done things like say the armistice between his country and the south is over with and that a state of war exists between them. His news agency has issued statements such as, nuclear weapons are part of "the nation's life and won't be traded even for billions of dollars." He has cut off hot lines to the south. Recently he warned foreign embassies in his country that his government cannot guarantee their safety after the 10th of this month. He has moved at least two long range missiles to his country's east coast and finally he shut down a shared industrial complex, kicking out South Korean workers and withdrawing the North Korean work force.
The South Korean public has had to put up with all manner of bombastic bullshit from the Kim family for three generations now and most haven't blinked an eye while the rest of the world has grown edgier and edgier. However, today NBC News is reporting, that even the placid ROK goverment has begun to distribute handbills instructing the civilian population on what to do in case of a nuclear, biological, or chemical attack. This after the new president of the republic, Park Geun-hye issued a statement last week saying "as commander in chief of the armed forces I will trust the military's judgement on abrupt and surprise provocations by North Korea."
Down in Havana Fidel is calling this crisis the most dangerous since the old Soviet Union and the United States came within an inch or so of total nuclear war because of Russian missiles located in his country. Vladimir Putin has claimed the situation in Korea could make the nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl look like a "fairy tale." The Chinese are saying things like, "No country should be allowed to throw a region and even the whole world into chaos for selfish gain."
So assuming Kim isn't delusional, what exactly is it that he wants? Is it more food aid? The prevailing reports in the west and elsewhere are that his people, at least in the rural areas, are hard pressed to put a decent meal on the table, although sometimes you have to wonder how much of that is our own propaganda. Is it economic investment from someone besides the Chinese? If it is, this sort of crazed nonsense seems counter productive to that goal. Lets face it, not even the greed heads at Nike will build a plant in a place where the leadership might go off its nut at a moment's notice.
No, it may be something so profoundly juvenile that it makes George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq look responsible. Think back to the "nukes are our nation's life" statement and the assertion North Korea won't give them up for even billions of dollars. Almost lost and nearly ignored because of that sensational and surreal statement was the announcement that North Korea had passed a law regarding the use of her nuclear weapons. In fact the law stated that North Korea would use nuclear weapons only to "repel invasion or an attack from a hostile nuclear weapons state and make retaliatory strikes." It also promised to never use atomic weapons against non nuclear armed countries and oh by the way, North Korea is prepared to participate in non proliferation talks.
What Kim seems to be saying is, world you need to recognize us as a power and behave toward us as if we're an equal. We are all grown up and we have the nukes to prove it. There is no giving them up, so you should treat us like you would any heavy weight and we'll act responsibly.
Although it may be far more complicated than just that one has to think it is a large part of it. If this version of Kim gets that sort of recognition for North Korea he will have accomplished something his grandfather and his old man didn't. He will have made North Korea a world player instead of an isolated pariah. All the rest will eventually come and it will come on his terms.
The problem is that he may not know when to shut up. If he pushes just once too hard it could prove to be disastrous. After all the rookie president in the south has all ready said, hey, its up to my military now, I'm not making the call, they are. That is never a good thing. Soldiers aren't trained in the fine and subtle art of diplomacy. They are trained to shoot to kill.
And of course if Kim actually does believe his own propaganda machine, if he really is just as loony as say James Holmes, none of this speculation means squat. He is going to do what ever it is those little voices in his head tell him to do, regardless of the consequences.
If that is the case we're going to find out soon. The cryptic date of the tenth is right around the corner while joint military exercises between South Korean troops and American forces are scheduled to last until the end of the month.
So does the little man go over, or does he ease his foot off the pedal before the bus gets to the edge of the cliff? Unfortunately for all involved these things tend to take on a life of their own and right now Kim Jong-un himself might not even have the answer to that question.
Here is hoping someone in North Korea does and it favors sanity.
sic vita est
4-8-13
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