October 16, 2006
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[irritably drumming fingers ] Whatever else one can say about North Korea's Kim Jong-il, he has the nerve of a bad tooth. North Korea relies heavily upon UN food aid to feed its citizens? Yet it has money to squander on nuclear weapons?
ISTM this is akin to someone spending money on cigarettes and liquor then claiming he hasn't enough money for food.
Quit popping bucks on cigarettes and liquor and you very likely will, or at least the shortfall will shrink significantly. Like, you know....duh.
What does Kimmie think North Korea needs nuclear weapons for, anyway? A small, poor country full of hungry, skinny people isn't likely to be taken over by anyone. Who'd want it? Perhaps everyone else has North Korea on their minds quite a lot, but for myself, I can go from month to month without thinking about it.
It's one of the most insular, incommunicato nations on the planet, preferring to neither let outsiders in nor insiders out, yet Kimmie is presumably afraid we're all determined to Git 'Em, which is crazy. He's done such a dandy job of making North Korea virtually invisible to the outside world, why would he believe the world's particularly interested, to the point he needs to arm North Korea with nuclear capability?
A couple of years ago I read an article about North Korea which described its miserable condition. One thing that stuck with me was that on the rare occasion someone manages to get permission to leave, they're knocked for a loop by the realization No One Cares About North Korea. Kim Jong-il isn't only not revered.....most people can't think of his name off the top of their heads (heck, I had to google it; always want to call him "Jim"). This is not what North Korea's interal press says, you see. The official line is Kim Jong-il is a god, and the reason the country has to be so insulated is so all the envious people in the rest of the world, who wish they could live under the benevolent rule of such a wonderful god, don't flood in.
Apparently it's a real kick in the head to those North Koreans who somehow join the rest of the world, to learn how little attention is paid to their country, that far from being universally revered most people have never heard of Kim Jong-il, and how in general North Korea's not considered to be of much importance.
But they need nuclear bombs.
Comments (5)
This is what comes from having a lunatic for a leader. But it takes a lot of people to KEEP him in power, and surely they're not all crazies. They need a coup d'etat and they need it fast.
Hungry, skinny people aren't much for coup d'etats, I fear.
Really, odds are Kimmie doesn't really want conditions to improve very much. Keep 'em weak from hunger, focussed on where their next meal's coming from, and they're unlikely to expend energy running you out of the country on a rail.
Well, it's clear he doesn't want nukes for defense. He wants nukes as a bargaining chip, and he wants the US to sit down and take him seriously. Yet, if we do that, then his already inflated ego will bloat even more monstrouely.
I like the idea I heard on NPR yesterday, of a sanction on luxury items going into NKorea. You see, it is Kim and the higher ups in that country who benefit from the luxuries. The populace will suffer not one whit, if luxury is blocked from entering. Smart Sanctions!
Those would be Smart Sanctions! I don't see how anyone (say, Russia or China) could argue against them, either.
Well said - as usual!
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