North Korea down to its last card
North Korea's poker game with the world community may be coming to an end.
But the question is, by doing so, are they about to fold their cards?
The country that continues to follow the script of the film "The Mouse that Roared" -- where a tiny, impoverished, fictional country declares war against the United States simply for the aid that will follow their quick defeat -- is becoming more desperate as its options become ever more limited.
By declaring itself a nuclear state, North Korea is playing the only card it has left in the deck.
It's betting that the United States is so intent on safeguarding itself and its allies from the nuclear threat that it can be drawn to the negotiating table one on one.
In this case, the best thing for the United States to do is tighten the screws of sanctions a little bit tighter, and not allow North Korea's nuclear boast to raise the bid.
North Korea knows that with the United States and China enjoying good relations, the hermitic state can no longer rely on the world's most populous country as a close ally.
So, what is North Korea after by making such a desperate declaration? In their attempts to goad the U.S. alone to the table, what does it have to offer, besides threats?
Perhaps the wildest possible scenario is that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is finally looking for a way to save his nation and to do so with dignity -- at least a domestic dignity. He wants to maintain whatever honor the communist system has with its people. He wants to save his own skin, and preserve the legacy of the crumbling communist state.
Perhaps Kim vainly sees himself as a future hero in a nuclear arms treaty with the United States, recalling Reagan and Gorbachev in 1986. As crazy as that sounds, it is appropriate for a foreign policy as schizophrenic as North Korea's.
If Kim wants to play the same role for his country that Mikhail Gorbachev did for the Soviet Union -- the nuclear threats and demands are a funny way of showing it.
Certainly their intention is not to warn the world community to just leave them alone. If that were the case, they wouldn't be beckoning for the United States.
This is nuclear blackmail, plain and simple. And they must not be allowed to get away with it.
Concession isn't what the North Koreans have in store, or else they could do so quietly. Instead, they want support for their desperate economy, and to do that, they wave a threatening finger at the world's richest, most powerful nation.
But salvation is possible. If North Korea is genuinely looking for a way out of their mess, it need only look south.
But the question is, by doing so, are they about to fold their cards?
The country that continues to follow the script of the film "The Mouse that Roared" -- where a tiny, impoverished, fictional country declares war against the United States simply for the aid that will follow their quick defeat -- is becoming more desperate as its options become ever more limited.
By declaring itself a nuclear state, North Korea is playing the only card it has left in the deck.
It's betting that the United States is so intent on safeguarding itself and its allies from the nuclear threat that it can be drawn to the negotiating table one on one.
In this case, the best thing for the United States to do is tighten the screws of sanctions a little bit tighter, and not allow North Korea's nuclear boast to raise the bid.
North Korea knows that with the United States and China enjoying good relations, the hermitic state can no longer rely on the world's most populous country as a close ally.
So, what is North Korea after by making such a desperate declaration? In their attempts to goad the U.S. alone to the table, what does it have to offer, besides threats?
Perhaps the wildest possible scenario is that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is finally looking for a way to save his nation and to do so with dignity -- at least a domestic dignity. He wants to maintain whatever honor the communist system has with its people. He wants to save his own skin, and preserve the legacy of the crumbling communist state.
Perhaps Kim vainly sees himself as a future hero in a nuclear arms treaty with the United States, recalling Reagan and Gorbachev in 1986. As crazy as that sounds, it is appropriate for a foreign policy as schizophrenic as North Korea's.
If Kim wants to play the same role for his country that Mikhail Gorbachev did for the Soviet Union -- the nuclear threats and demands are a funny way of showing it.
Certainly their intention is not to warn the world community to just leave them alone. If that were the case, they wouldn't be beckoning for the United States.
This is nuclear blackmail, plain and simple. And they must not be allowed to get away with it.
Concession isn't what the North Koreans have in store, or else they could do so quietly. Instead, they want support for their desperate economy, and to do that, they wave a threatening finger at the world's richest, most powerful nation.
But salvation is possible. If North Korea is genuinely looking for a way out of their mess, it need only look south.
posted by Administrator at 1:50 AM
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