Redheads have always been accused of having a temper.  This blog is a journey into the mind of a redhead; decide for yourself if we have a temper or are just frustrated by what we see...

Laura Bramble

THE RED MENACE

Laura Bramble

You can tell that Kim Jong Il was born with a silver spoon in his mouth.  He is one of those people who is used to living the life of a privileged elite; a big fish in a small pond whose every whim is another's command.  But Kim got handed a comeuppance; he launched a missile test and the world yawned.  Sure there was conversation and condemnation- that's a given- but there was no major outcry of fear nor were there any concessions made to "buy" Kim's compliance.  So like any pouty child throwing a temper tantrum, when fussing isn't enough, you take the next step- you throw yourself on the floor and start pounding your fists. 
 
The difficulty of how to handle the situation after this comes from the fact that this is not just some harmless child, even though Kim is acting like one.  At the end of the day, what can most children do as the ultimate throw down?  They can attack and hit you, which is far from life threatening.  Yet Kim has the ability to kill several hundred thousand people, since his latest bomb is of the scale of Hiroshima and Nagasaki's levelers.  And who says that he would not include "dirty" materials or chemical warfare to worsen the damage inflicted? 
 
The biggest difference this latest test has resulted in is that China has made a condemnation statement, which it has been hesitant to do, or just plain refused to do, before this.  The threat of open conflict with China has always been North Korea's ace in the hole, since the US and its allies would never be able to mass enough men and materials across the Pacific in time to defeat the Chinese and nuclear warfare is not an option.  But China's economic health is firmly tied to the US and the old Communist ties that bind are not what they used to be.  China and North Korea are like two kids that came from the same neighborhood and share a friendship based on common experience and a loyalty to their roots.  However, China has grown and is reaching maturity while North Korea is stuck in the past and is quickly going nowhere.  If North Korea pushes too hard and relies too heavily on China, will China realize that defending North Korea is no longer in its best interests and shun them?  At that point, North Korea will have almost no leverage and will lose one of the fastest growing economies and the most populous nation in the world with whom it shares a border as an ally.  That is something that North Korea cannot afford.
 
The people of North Korea are starving- communism is not the success for them that it was for some of their other neighbors.  South Koreans, who are not Communist, are not starving and have experienced prosperity.  Could this imbalance between North and South, which started the original civil war, led to another open revolt by the North Koreans against their government?  With Kim's rumored ill health, a change in leadership is in the wings already.  Kim and his father maintained an iron grip on information from and about the outside world, creating a false reality about the condition of the North Koreans in comparison to its neighbors.  But in this day and age of ever increasing ease of information availability, how long can Kim or his successors be able to keep their dirty little secret?  The North Korean people will eventually find out that they are starving while their neighbors are prospering and that the food they had been eating for years was not provided to them by their glorious leader.  Instead it was provided by the guilt or generosity of their Southern neighbors and the rest of the non-Communist world.  
 
How much of a risk do we take in allowing this temper tantrum to escalate in the hope that it burns itself out, that China will finally get so embarrassed and fed up that it tells North Korea to get lost, or that the North Koreans themselves wake up to what is really going on within their borders?  I don't envy Secretary Clinton or President Obama on this one... 

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