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In this undated file photo released on March 19 by the (North) Korean Central News Agency and provided by Korea News Service in Tokyo on March 20, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, center, inspects the newly-built swimming complex at the Kim Il-sung University in Pyongyang.
/ AP-KCNA-Yonhap |
By Allen Bauer
I imagine Kim Jong-il sleeps like a baby at night. Perhaps he dreams it's Christmas morning and walks downstairs to see what's under the tree.
He finds a large package and unwraps it ― a brand-spanking shiny new warhead! And, right next to that, a container of enriched uranium! Kim yawns contentedly.
``This would be the right time to sit in on one of those multilateral discussions everybody's been ballyhooing about. My new warhead will make a helluva good bargaining chip.''
Many observers are perplexed at the rash of belligerent activity coming out of North Korea. There's been some conjecture that it's related to a shift in the power structure of North Korea's ruling circle.
However, there is no logical foundation to that suggestion ― how would these events be related?
Another popular notion: It's all just ``saber-rattling'' in a misguided North Korean effort to extract a few paltry concessions from its adversaries.
Even the recent kidnapping of two young reporters was seen by many as ``another bargaining chip,'' although the trial of these unfortunate young women was fast-tracked; they were whisked off to an obscure penal colony and negotiation was never an option.
Kim Jong-il, meanwhile, has made it clear enough that he intends to pursue a nuclear
 agenda. Still, we tend to scratch our heads and say ``Yeah right. But what does he really want?'' Maybe we just aren't really listening.
With each step Kim takes, he is testing the water to see just how much he can rock the boat without tipping it. Each new act of defiance brings him a little closer to his nuclear prize.
His actions also serve to inure an international public to the notion of a nuclear North. I guess Kim realizes that it takes time for the world to adjust to radical new ideas. And what is so radical about it anyhow? North Korea wouldn't be the first testy little country to go ballistic.
The doves will argue that diplomacy is the key. If we are nice to North Korea, it will eventually settle down and see the merits of cultivating a ``free market" economy along with the rest of us: industrialization, a nine-to-nine job at the Gaeseong Industrial Complex, 25-year mortgage payments, yadda yadda.
Over the weekend, the U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted a new resolution laced with tougher sanctions against North Korea for its second nuclear test. America is already overextended in the Middle East; North Korea has about 600 Scuds aimed at the South, and invasion simply isn't an option.
In any case, there is no oil to be had. South Korean citizens are just praying that the stock market will hold steady and their fragile economy will rebound.
And what about Kim Jong-il? Well, he just keeps inching along, one small step at a time, perseverant little man that he is.
It all seems vaguely reminiscent of something … Oh yes, of course. In 1933, Chancellor Adolf Hitler thumbed his nose at the Versailles Treaty (and the League of Nations) and began rearming Germany. The world stood still. Nobody wanted another war.
A rash of belligerent acts followed, as Hitler expanded Germany's territory while her neighbors did little or nothing about it.
When Germany invaded Czechoslovakia, in 1938, British Prime Minister Chamberlain signed the Munich Pact, essentially assuring Hitler that Britain would not stand in his way (France and Italy were also signatories). ``Peace in our time,'' Chamberlain called it.
Hitler has been called a master of the fait accompli ― a peculiar strategy of aggression requiring that its proponent take small strides, and then sit back for a time to see what the rest of the world will do about it.
If the world does nothing then the process is repeated, one small step at a time, until a final goal is achieved. Well, it seems there's a new master in town. One small step at a time Kim, Jong-il realizes; that is the road to a nuclear North.
Allen Bauer is a Canadian who has lived in Korea for seven years. He is currently on writing assignment to Karina Communications, based in Ottawa. He can be reached at koreaspeak@gmail.com.
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