North Korea Tweaks World’s Nose with Missile Test

North Korea tested somewhere between 6 and 10 ballistic missiles in the wee hours of this morning. The good news is that the Taepodong-2, capable of flying as far as Alaska and Central Asia failed 40 seconds into the launch, while the other missiles tested were of shorter range. The bad news is that North Korea has annoyed just about everybody in the North Pacific region with what the Americans are rightly calling a “provocative” move.

The criminal regime of Pyongyang is quite like the child who hasn’t yet learned the difference between good attention from adults and bad attention. It is just as happy to get the spotlight through dangerous and even stupid acts as through responsible actions. The missile tests work in tandem with the nuclear shenanigans to get world attention that might otherwise go to Iraq, Afghanistan, Darfur or Zimbabwe.

With attention acquired, the North Korean government will be the subject of discussion in a closed-door meeting of the UN Security Council later today. The Japanese and South Koreans have been reminded that they are within range of any idiocy from Pyongyang, and the question is whether they will get spiky about things, or whether they will try to ameliorate the current tensions. In America, the Busheviks long ago decided that they would rely on the toughest sanctions they could get, because they aren’t very good an non-confrontational diplomacy, which ceased to be an option anyway a few hours ago.

China, of course, remains the key to this problem, as it has been since the 1950s. It suits China to have a buffer state south of the Yalu River, especially since the South Koreans have joined the First World. The ChiComs maintain the criminal regime in North Korea through aid, some trade, and if nothing else, forbearance (the People’s Liberation Army can change the regime anytime it chooses). The question is whether China has any interest in reining in Kim Jong-il.

In all likelihood, it does not. The word from Beijing, taken from a CNN translation of a statement on the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s website is “We are seriously concerned with the situation which has already happened. We hope that all the relevant sides can remain calm and restrained and do more things which are conducive to peace and stability ... and not take any actions to escalate and complicate the situation.” This journal has no trouble translating the diplomatese into English, “The People’s Republic of China isn’t going to do anything about this, and won’t let anyone else do anything about it either.”

© Copyright 2006 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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