Wednesday, July 05, 2006
North Korean Fireworks
The Christian Science Monitor:
The real question is why? Why would North Korea want to make US headlines, consequentially stealing those headlines from Iran; who has been under immense pressure from Washington for the past couple of months? One has to wonder if it is because Kim Jong Il is playing patty cake with Ahmanidejad. Though I can't imagine this is what's happening, simply because you have one very crazy ideologue in Iran and one just plain crazy in North Korea. To be inclined to think that these two are allies is not really a natural thought, but I had to ask. So why?
Well, I think I answered that already. Jong Il is just plain crazy, which will soon be seen.
We have been imposing very stringent negotiations upon Iran, in which they have slowly agreed to participate in. They have in no way agreed to any solid resolution yet, but atleast they are sleeping on it. Ahmadinejad and his cohorts are being kept at bay by this pressure. Keep in mind, it is really only the United States applying all of the pressure. We have gotten no help from China, the most powerful ally because of size and resources, and limited help from the other members of the council.
In contrast, North Korea under heavy pressure not only from the United States, but also from South Korea, Japan and China, just to name a few, decided to green-light their highly contested missile launch operation on the fourth of July; one of the most prominent and revered holiday's in America. Now there is no way that anyone is going to convince me that Kim Jong Il was not aware of all of this. He knows what South Korea has invested in him, and he knows how much a launch like this would both enrage China and set Japan on the defensive.
So basically, Jong Il had much more to lose than Iran when he decided to launch, which makes little sense because the launch was a failure, and a weak failure at that. The one new missile they fired, the intercontinental Taepodong 2 failed after 42 seconds in the air; and the others were much older models that also yielded no success. So why risk so much for such a unimpressive display of puny world muscle? At this point I think only Jong Il knows, and what goes on in that mans head is not something the rest of the world wishes to see.
Perhaps North Korea wants a war, yet with who I don't know. The west in general I imagine. Though when one wants war, typically one believes that one can win. Kim Jong Il can't really think all out warfare with the west would bebeneficial for his country, can he?
(Austin Bay has thoughts here)
BEIJING - Kim Jong Il's seven missile launches on July 4 have woken up East Asia from a long somnambulance about North Korea. The firing of the missiles, which mostly landed in Russian waters, is regarded as a military act - prompting Asian states to rethink their approach both to North Korea and each other. While a small crisis, it could be divisive and play into local differences, analysts say, causing further tensions at a time when the region is already experiencing difficult relations.I think by now the majority of people have heard of the North Korean missile launch on the fourth of July; which is precisely what Pyongyang wanted. I have read some dispute that the decision to launch on our independance day may have been a coincidence, but that view has been extremely limited because the timing of the event is quite obvious.
The real question is why? Why would North Korea want to make US headlines, consequentially stealing those headlines from Iran; who has been under immense pressure from Washington for the past couple of months? One has to wonder if it is because Kim Jong Il is playing patty cake with Ahmanidejad. Though I can't imagine this is what's happening, simply because you have one very crazy ideologue in Iran and one just plain crazy in North Korea. To be inclined to think that these two are allies is not really a natural thought, but I had to ask. So why?
Well, I think I answered that already. Jong Il is just plain crazy, which will soon be seen.
We have been imposing very stringent negotiations upon Iran, in which they have slowly agreed to participate in. They have in no way agreed to any solid resolution yet, but atleast they are sleeping on it. Ahmadinejad and his cohorts are being kept at bay by this pressure. Keep in mind, it is really only the United States applying all of the pressure. We have gotten no help from China, the most powerful ally because of size and resources, and limited help from the other members of the council.
In contrast, North Korea under heavy pressure not only from the United States, but also from South Korea, Japan and China, just to name a few, decided to green-light their highly contested missile launch operation on the fourth of July; one of the most prominent and revered holiday's in America. Now there is no way that anyone is going to convince me that Kim Jong Il was not aware of all of this. He knows what South Korea has invested in him, and he knows how much a launch like this would both enrage China and set Japan on the defensive.
So basically, Jong Il had much more to lose than Iran when he decided to launch, which makes little sense because the launch was a failure, and a weak failure at that. The one new missile they fired, the intercontinental Taepodong 2 failed after 42 seconds in the air; and the others were much older models that also yielded no success. So why risk so much for such a unimpressive display of puny world muscle? At this point I think only Jong Il knows, and what goes on in that mans head is not something the rest of the world wishes to see.
Perhaps North Korea wants a war, yet with who I don't know. The west in general I imagine. Though when one wants war, typically one believes that one can win. Kim Jong Il can't really think all out warfare with the west would bebeneficial for his country, can he?
(Austin Bay has thoughts here)
