What is more dangerous than having a mad man as a head of state? Surveying the world right now, it’s difficult to find any leaders particularly praise worthy, but some are serious like Hugo Chavez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad; however, perhaps one alone exceeds their madness, Kim Jung Il.
The world became a more dangerous place in recent days as North Korea tested a second, more powerful nuclear bomb and began a series of missile tests. Soon, any nation within their rockets’ range will be in peril. Further, would keeping nuclear technology a secret be in Il’s value system? Hardly, his weapons displays seem to be marketing presentations for future buyers.
On this grand scale, the world has work to do to contain Il’s treachery, and it will take much more than just more nasty letters from the impotent United Nations. However, Il’s madness extends to smaller levels that reveal pure wickedness.
The world should unite in outrage for his taking two American journalists hostage, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, forcing them to stand before a North Korean magistrate on trumped up charges, and then sentencing them to twelve years in a forced labor camp.
The reporters were taken hostage by North Korean soldiers patrolling along the Chinese border. Though North Korea offers little on what their rationale is for holding these two Americans, they indicated the ladies were guilty of trespassing and committing a grave crime. The North Korean communist dictatorship held a five day “trial” in Pyongyang.
Make no mistake about it, this case cannot be taken in isolation. It is one of a series of provocative moves by the North Korean government which in addition to the weapons displays includes harassing boats in international waters and sending a trawler into South Korean territorial waters.
What the end game Kim Jung Il and his thugs have in mind is difficult to calculate. Is it a shakedown game to extract bounty from the west? Is it a slick move to attempt to see how far the oppressive dictatorship can press the civilized world without suffering tangible consequences? Is it flexing its muscles to attract interest of the other criminal regimes and outlaw factions in the world with anti-western agendas as possible customers for its weapons? The infamous Scud missiles Saddam Hussein launched during the first Gulf War, Desert Storm, were of North Korean origin. On going dialog between the highest levels of the North Korean government and Iran are ominous signs of what could lie ahead.
The world must deal with North Korea forcefully and concede nothing. Sadly, how much real clout does the west have short of all-out war which regardless of the eventual outcome could prove catastrophic for South Korea, whose capital city, Seoul is less than 50 miles from the demarcation line separating the two nations. The potential harm to the population of the south and even Japan such across the Sea of Japan, the North Koreans have the means to cause tremendous harm regardless of what the obvious outcome would be for their fate.
The answer rests in Beijing where the Communist Chinese hold all the cards. It is through their support providing food and fuel to the North Korean dictatorship that this atrocity is able to continue in the first place. The country is starving to death thanks to the insensitivity and isolation of its government whose wicked behavior has locked it out from the world at large.
The response by the Clinton and Bush administration lacked urgency and a sense of punch, now the Obama administration seems even more prepared to allow the United Nations to write nasty letters easily ignored to Kim Jung Il. Further, by running up the national debt with China one of the largest customers for U.S. debt, our country has lost any bargaining with the communist government being literally indebted to them to the tune of billions of dollars.
While the fate of these two enterprising American reporters is an intolerable atrocity no rational person can tolerate, the fate of just two Americans might be tiny compared to the horrors that lie ahead. The surest thing in the world is how dictatorships react to signs of weakness and waffling. We don’t think the Obama administration understands this basic truth of world politics based on its behavior so far.
The world became a more dangerous place in recent days as North Korea tested a second, more powerful nuclear bomb and began a series of missile tests. Soon, any nation within their rockets’ range will be in peril. Further, would keeping nuclear technology a secret be in Il’s value system? Hardly, his weapons displays seem to be marketing presentations for future buyers.
On this grand scale, the world has work to do to contain Il’s treachery, and it will take much more than just more nasty letters from the impotent United Nations. However, Il’s madness extends to smaller levels that reveal pure wickedness.
The world should unite in outrage for his taking two American journalists hostage, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, forcing them to stand before a North Korean magistrate on trumped up charges, and then sentencing them to twelve years in a forced labor camp.
The reporters were taken hostage by North Korean soldiers patrolling along the Chinese border. Though North Korea offers little on what their rationale is for holding these two Americans, they indicated the ladies were guilty of trespassing and committing a grave crime. The North Korean communist dictatorship held a five day “trial” in Pyongyang.
Make no mistake about it, this case cannot be taken in isolation. It is one of a series of provocative moves by the North Korean government which in addition to the weapons displays includes harassing boats in international waters and sending a trawler into South Korean territorial waters.
What the end game Kim Jung Il and his thugs have in mind is difficult to calculate. Is it a shakedown game to extract bounty from the west? Is it a slick move to attempt to see how far the oppressive dictatorship can press the civilized world without suffering tangible consequences? Is it flexing its muscles to attract interest of the other criminal regimes and outlaw factions in the world with anti-western agendas as possible customers for its weapons? The infamous Scud missiles Saddam Hussein launched during the first Gulf War, Desert Storm, were of North Korean origin. On going dialog between the highest levels of the North Korean government and Iran are ominous signs of what could lie ahead.
The world must deal with North Korea forcefully and concede nothing. Sadly, how much real clout does the west have short of all-out war which regardless of the eventual outcome could prove catastrophic for South Korea, whose capital city, Seoul is less than 50 miles from the demarcation line separating the two nations. The potential harm to the population of the south and even Japan such across the Sea of Japan, the North Koreans have the means to cause tremendous harm regardless of what the obvious outcome would be for their fate.
The answer rests in Beijing where the Communist Chinese hold all the cards. It is through their support providing food and fuel to the North Korean dictatorship that this atrocity is able to continue in the first place. The country is starving to death thanks to the insensitivity and isolation of its government whose wicked behavior has locked it out from the world at large.
The response by the Clinton and Bush administration lacked urgency and a sense of punch, now the Obama administration seems even more prepared to allow the United Nations to write nasty letters easily ignored to Kim Jung Il. Further, by running up the national debt with China one of the largest customers for U.S. debt, our country has lost any bargaining with the communist government being literally indebted to them to the tune of billions of dollars.
While the fate of these two enterprising American reporters is an intolerable atrocity no rational person can tolerate, the fate of just two Americans might be tiny compared to the horrors that lie ahead. The surest thing in the world is how dictatorships react to signs of weakness and waffling. We don’t think the Obama administration understands this basic truth of world politics based on its behavior so far.
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