I’m So Ronery
I’m so ronery
So ronery
So ronery and sadry arone
There’s no one
Just me onry
Sitting on my rittle throne
I work very hard and make up great prans
But nobody ristens, no one understands
Seems that no one takes me serirousry
(“I’m So Ronery” sung by the puppet Kim Jong Il from the film Team America: World Police)
I almost feel sorry for North Korean strongman Kim Jong Il. The poor bastard sits atop a country that is beyond being a basket case and probably beyond salvage. This from StrategyPage this morning from a piece entitled “Forget the Missiles, This is Even More Bizarre:”
While everyone’s attention was focused on North Korean missiles, the real story is the North Korean economy. It continues to fall apart, and more North Koreans are unhappy about that. Worse yet, more North Koreans are finding out how badly they have been screwed by their leaders. Meanwhile, North Korean officials engage in even more bizarre behavior. For example, food and fuel supplies sent to North Korea have been halted, not to force North Korea to stop missile tests or participate in peace talks, but to return the Chinese trains the aid was carried in on. In the last few weeks, the North Koreans have just kept the trains, sending the Chinese crews back across the border. North Korea just ignores Chinese demands that the trains be returned, and insists that the trains are part of the aid program. It’s no secret that North Korean railroad stock is falling apart, after decades of poor maintenance and not much new equipment. Stealing Chinese trains is a typical loony-tune North Korean solution to the problem.
Stealing Chinese trains? Stealing from the only country in the world willing to keep selling you food and fuel to keep your robotic, regimented population from either starving to death or rising en masse to throw your ass on the dustbin of history?
Kim gets away with stuff like this because he’s a loon, not in spite of it. No one, including the South Koreans, really know what the tyrant is up to which makes him not only dangerous, but unpredictable. And there is nothing in the world that makes bureaucrats, diplomats, and government types more nervous and confused than unpredictability. The North Korean leader just doesn’t fit into one of the nice, neat little boxes that the State Department uses to categorize world leaders. Even President Ahmadinejad of Iran is understandable in that it is obvious that his motivations are at least grounded in his religious beliefs. But there simply is no rhyme nor reason to some of Kim’s stratagems, not when he pulls stunts like stealing trains from his major benefactor and launching missiles when most of the world is asking him not to:
North Korea test-fired several missiles in the early hours of Wednesday, July 5 (Tuesday afternoon Eastern time), apparently including the Taepodong-2, the long-range missile at the heart of diplomatic tensions with the United States and its allies, according to reports by Reuters, The Associated Press, CNN and other agencies, citing sources in Japan and Washington.The long-range missile seems to have malfunctioned less than a minute into its flight, CNN and Reuters reported, citing American officials they did not name.
“Today’s launches were done despite advance warning by the relevant countries,” the top spokesman for the Japanese government, Shinzo Abe, told reporters early Wednesday in Tokyo, Reuters reported. “This is a grave problem in terms of peace and stability, not only of Japan but also of international society,” Mr. Abe was quoted as saying. “We strongly protest against North Korea.”
It seems silly but one of his motivations for acting the way he does could be that Kim feels neglected. Every couple of months it seems, his government says or does something so outrageous that it is bound to get headlines in the western media. Like a spoiled 2 year old child, Kim goes into a foot stomping, head banging tantrum so that all eyes will be upon him, however briefly.
Take yesterday’s missile launches. According to intelligence, the North Korean’s launched a total of 6 missiles including a couple of Scuds and their intermediate range missile, the Rodong as well as their ICBM, the Taepodong 2. The ICBM, of course, was the cause of all the excitement given that some analysts believed it capable of hitting the extreme Northwest part of the United States. At the very least, it would have no trouble hitting Japan, a fact not lost on Tokyo who has called for an emergency meeting of the Security Council today to discuss the matter.
What to make of this? First of all, the timing of the launches cannot have been lost on the United States, coming as they did on the 4th of July. Kim probably thought this a huge joke, a pulling of the lion’s tail as it were. And I can just see the tyrant clapping his hands together in joy at the prospect of the largest nations in the world worrying their heads over him as they sit down at the UN today.
But secondly there’s that curious “failure” of the ICBM about 40 seconds after launch.The Taepodong 2 had a successful test in 1998, buzzing Japan by flying over Japanese territory for much of its flight. Now, I haven’t seen this speculation anywhere else, but it could be that the missile was deliberately destroyed by the North Koreans themselves. Why? Because by launching the missile and then destroying it, Kim proves a point without being too provocative. He pulls the lion’s tail without awakening the beast so that it turns and mauls him. Kim gets his headlines on America’s birthday while proving to the world he can defy the United States.
Again, this is pure speculation but given Kim’s monumental unpredictability, it’s just cuckoo enough to have a ring of truth to it. In the asylum he inhabits, Kim would see such a stratagem as a huge victory. And the more unpredictable he is, the more fear he generates in the rest of the world. It is that fear that Kim is counting on as he expects Russia, China, Japan, South Korea, and the US to try and buy him off by giving him enough aid to keep his country from sliding into total destitution and starvation.
High stakes, indeed. But if nothing else, Kim has shown a talent for survival. And in the game of international brinkmanship, the winner is usually the one determined to prevail at any cost.
UPDATE
Proving the old adage, “Nothing succeeds like success,” the North Koreans have launched a seventh missile, splashing it into the Sea of Japan like the others.
Ed Morrissey doesn’t think that this latest launch will make any difference at the UN today and I agree. What Kim wants he won’t get anytime soon – bilateral talks with the United States that would confer legitimacy on his regime and give him the respect he craves so desperately.
7:15 am
MISSILE TESTS PROVE KIM IS “RONERY” AGAIN
Right Wing Nut HouseI’m So Ronery
I’m so ronery
So ronery
So ronery and sadry arone
There’s no one
Just me onry
Sitting on my rittle throne
I work very hard and make up great prans
But nobody ristens, no one understands
Seems that n…
8:17 am
Seventh Missile Launches from North Korea
This morning the ILL manic has fired another one.Oh, an idea, perhaps we can send Kim Jong Il’s buddy, Clinton’s former Sec of State, Madeleine Albright over there to kiss up to him and then everything should be alright. Albright stated Il watches CN…
9:22 am
[...] Failure? What failure? ” . . . . there’s that curious “failure†of the ICBM about 40 seconds after launch.The Taepodong 2 had a successful test in 1998, buzzing Japan by flying over Japanese territory for much of its flight. Now, I haven’t seen this speculation anywhere else, but it could be that the missile was deliberately destroyed by the North Koreans themselves. Why? Because by launching the missile and then destroying it, Kim proves a point without being too provocative.” [...]
9:22 am
Failure to Launch
It’s a good thing the baddest Korean missile did the worst of the bunch tested. It “failed” yesterday. If it hadn’t, we might have needed to use the Son of Star Wars missile defense system that has never worked. Everybody say…
9:43 am
North Korean Nuclear Poker
It all sounds to me quite a bit like a temper tantrum gone wrong by Kim Jong Il. Despite all the posturing of the past months, he had received no juicy economic and political incentive offers. Zip. Meanwhile Iran steals all the international limelight …
10:35 am
[...] MilBlogs, The Muslim Question, Right Wing Nut House, Scrutator, Stop the ACLU, Wizbang. | Permalink No Comments» [...]
10:42 am
North Korean Games
Not least of the concerns is the marriage of insanity with nuclear technology – whether it’s in North Korea or Iran.
12:40 pm
I listened to an interview on the Paul W. Smith show on WWJ out of Detroit this morning with the former Amassador to South Korea (under Bush I.) He claims that it isn’t Kim Jong Il who’s saber rattling, but the military which has taken over the country. He claimed that everyone who has met Kim says he’s an extremely intelligent individual that isn’t the madman he’s portrayed to be. He also said that the US is handling the situation correctly. I think this guy is still circling the airport.
2:15 pm
Where’s The Response To N. Korea’s Missile Launch?
Independence Day 2006, was one of the more bizarre birthdays in our nation’s history. After several days of postponement, NASA launched the Discovery shuttle, marking the first Independence Day launch ever. Troubling, however, were the numerous object…
2:38 pm
Rick,
The 1998 test was a TD-1, not a TD-2.
Also, I would be very wary of attributing motives or what amounts to making guesses on North Korean internal politics and political and military leadership views and objectives. It’s simply impossible to know for sure what is going on inside the regime, especially in the upper echelons. We thought we knew Saddam’s calculus in the decade before the Iraq war – it turns out we were pretty much completely wrong in our estimates of how his regime viewed the world, what their priorities were, what they viewed as their primary threats, etc. We can’t afford to make similar mistakes with North Korea and make assumptions on their motivations.
2:59 pm
What I worry about is how North Korea might handle a complete breakdown internally. All it would take at this point is one failed harvest and they are going to be in a world of hurt. If their people become so hungry that they lose fear of the government. They might turn on it figuring they are going to starve anyway so what is the government going to do, kill them?
How would the government react to that? Would they “punch out” in a blaze of glory going down in a nuclear war rather than go out as an utter and complete failure?
3:01 am
Rick,
It is apparent you are not a fan of “Juche”. Anyway, it is not surprising the Taepodong 2 malfunctioned. If you have ever read Khrushchev’s memoirs “Khrushchev remembers”, then you would have realized he was scared shitless of the airplane he had to fly in. It was the Soviet equivalent of Air Force One. It was supposed to be the crown jewel of Soviet techonology, but low and behold ole Nikita was scared because it was half-assed Soviet technology. Now, compare that to country that is even more inept.
The Soviets spent 1/6 of their GNP(obviously the same as GDP on their military. Imagine a North Korean economy, that is struggling. It is safe to assume that have of their GNP is towards the military. Do you guys remember the jokes about SCUD missles? It is time to recycle them.
I would like to address the guy who says that Kim Jong Il isn’t the head honcho. My friend works in customs at O’Hare. He encountered North Korean dignotaries. They all had giant Kim Jong Il buttons. Considering that and ole Kim averages 30 below par while playing golf, it is safe to assume who is in power. Then again with about half the economy dedicated to the military maybe they are the ones truly in charge.
7:59 pm
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10:25 pm
You’re observations may be very true on all counts.