North Korea: Sabre Rattling Anew

North Korea is at it again.

As per their usual song and dance, the regime of Kim Jong Il is at it again with their thinly veiled threats against South Korea. This time, it was, if we are to believe the claims of the South Korean government, the North that acted first in sinking a South Korean gunboat; supposedly in retaliation for a similar action last year by the South against the North.

No matter the cause, South Korea is on heightened military alert. In response, North Korea has declared that they will defend themselves against unfair and unwarranted aggression by South Korea. Then today US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, while visiting Seoul, South Korea as part of a multi-nation political swing through Eastern Asia, denounced the provocative stance of the North and asked for "North Korea to end its policy of threats and take steps to fulfill its denuclearization commitments and comply with international law.
"North Korea can still choose another path. Instead of isolation, poverty conflict and condemnation, North Korea could enjoy integration, prosperity, peace and respect," she said. (NPR report 05/26/10)

This whole thing is far from over. I'm sure, after more tension and increasing threats, that North Korea will capitulate its position after receiving "assurances" of an increase of food supplies and cash in exchange for their cooperation.

If all of this sounds familiar that's because this is the exact same political/military cat and mouse game that North Korea plays every couple of years. They feign offense at something, state they'll retaliate, place their military on alert, then give the US and others time to formulate their response based on economic incentives for the North to back down; which they do.

Here's the basic problem with what North Korea is doing. Their government is the last remaining Stalinist-based body in the world. Their actions over the last 25 years or so have isolated them from even their neighbor to the North, China. Their actions have resulted in unceasing embargoes that deny any humanitarian or economic aid to a country so poor that their "non-elite" citizens are starving.

Any so-called aid from these stand-offs never reaches the people who need it most. It is generally funneled to the government and the military. Everyone else is just seemingly out of luck. Meanwhile reports of starvation, military oppression and inflation so rampant that most citizens can't even buy what food there is, come filtering in from those brave souls who risk life and limb to breach the DMZ in order to escape the growing inhumane conditions from which they fled.

I have heard rumblings that the very elderly Kim Jong Il has multiple health problems, and that his son, Kim Jong un, slated to take control in the event of his father's death, is rumored to have a more favorable, conciliatory regard to South Korea and the US. If this proves to be true, then once Kim Jong Il is dead, there is a possibility of thawing relations between the two enmitic states.

In the mean time, we will continue to see more of the same sabre rattling happening that we are witnessing today. In spite of the vitriolic rhetoric we are hearing, there will be no war, no military action, no invasions. The North will threaten, they will get what they are after, and everything will be all happy on the Korean Peninsula once again...Until, that is, Kim Jong Il finds some new excuse to justify yet another round of his menial, small-minded megalomania that only places his already oppressed citizenry at ever-increasing risk.