The DPRK utterly refused to acknowledge this role in the whole fight, despite photographic and film-based evidence. The axes used to kill the soldiers are still on display in the North Korean Peace Museum in Kijŏng-dong, a Potemkin village within visual distance of the DMZ.
Doesn’t this sound eerily familiar to what just happened on Yeonpyeong?
The poplar incident, which is one of many, just goes to show that a year doesn’t go by on the Korean peninsula without some little reminder of the existence of the faux-Communist cult of personality that is the DPRK. The tirades of North Korea’s diminutive (and formerly corpulent) dictator would be an endless stream of hilarity if it weren’t for the fact that, despite the impoverished state of North Korea, the citizenry seem genuinely loyal to him and his insane quest to repeatedly poke the DPRK’s enemies in the eye.
Why is this? Kim Jong Il and his father, Kim Il Sung, both expertly built a cult of personality around themselves. The core tenet in this cult is the idea of racial homogeneity, the concept that the pure Korean race is, in fact, the most moral form of humanity. Some people trace this idea to Japanese indoctrination during their occupation of the peninsula. The Japanese encouraged the Koreans to think of themselves as part of the morally superior Yamato race. This tradition lived on after the Japanese were driven out of Korea by the Allied forces of World War 2.
6 Comments
Great article!
Only point of issue “saber rattling” – is I am not sure how capitulating to N Korea would help.
Their people having been starving for years and I am sure somehow the NK Regime blames the “outside” world for this too.
So whether we saber rattle or do nothing the NK regime will use our action, reaction or lack of action as “evidence” of an eminent attack or their strength in “warding” us off.
The US and UN (haha) should operate in a manner directly respective of security of our countries and those who are allies with little or no concern what NK will propagandize to their ‘captive’ people.
I can recall a raghead in Libya that used to behave in a similar manner. (I say raghead as M Ghadafi is a scumbag regardless of what he purports himself to be.)
Proving to me that the most effective way to deal with tyrants is to push them around and show their people they are not all powerful in the eyes of the world.
Proving to me that the most effective way to deal with tyrants is to push them around. (in effect ensuring our security.)
The best defense is a good offense!
The problem is that we can’t push Kim Jong Il around. Any attacks we make him, or the country as a whole, only feed into the paranoia. Like I said in the piece, our military superiority is substantial, but none of that matters if we are the unpure monsters at the gate. They will unite behind North Korea because they believe it is right – not necessarily because they believe they can win (though some folks might believe they can).
While I do not have a good answer to this question of what to do with North Korea, I think the only chance we’ve got to deal with these guys without an all out war is to convince China to stop propping them up financially. I don’t know what the Chinese would want for such a favor, but maybe someone can convince them it is in their best interests to ‘deal’ with the little monster they’ve created, just as we’ve had to deal with a few of the little monsters we created during the cold war.
I guess we could threaten China by going bankrupt.
Consider after the USSR fell the truth came out regarding what complete pagentry Soviet power really was even in the eyes of Soviet citizens. (Maybe that average bottle a day vodka habit kept them occupied and politically incurious.)
Personally I cant imagine anything sadder than living in NK.
Freedom is so precious that I would rather live risking life and limb in a day to day war zone than have experienced a fate the likes of NK citizens have for the 50+ years.
noticed that a lot of celebrities are deactivating their twitter accounts to somehow support a charity that helps babies with aids.
this seems highly illogical and leaves me wondering why they dont support pro life initiatives?
are healthly babies not worth the effort or saving?
or maybe you dont get that good liberal street cred for helping save healthy unborn babies?