Just More Of The Same?

"The first strike of the revolutionary armed forces of the DPRK will blow up the U.S. bases for aggression in its mainland and in the Pacific operational theatres including Hawaii and Guam."
Statement: Korean Central News Agency

A statement that is clearly measured in its conciliatory tone, geared to foster understanding between nations, and respect for the patient restraint exhibited by the Democtric People's Republic of Korea. Dignity must be recognized and indulged. Honour is at stake. One does not take lightly the offhand treatment of a serious contender to world-power status.

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea is unhappy. Pyongyang will not tolerate its dignity being imposed upon. North Korea is a peaceful country and strives toward peace. It is dissatisfied with the state of the relationship it shares with South Korea. A state of non-war through a temporary, 60-year-old armistice maintained within a Demilitarized War Zone is no way to befriend a former enemy.

The uncertainty that North Korea feels about its relationship with its national cousin is a cause of great anguish. South Korea's relationship with the United States, a country that North Korea is demonstrably convinced bears it ill will and is determined to follow through on a plan to destroy the North, is intolerable. Since South Korea has chosen the U.S. over North Korea with whom to forge a compact, the South is rejected.

No one but China feels the pain of North Korea. Difficult as it is to believe, this is the line of reasoning that some have forwarded as a reasonable explanation of the bellicose threats that have rumbled forth on cue, resulted from the UN's latest round of sanctions and the latest annual rendition of the combined U.S.-South Korea war games. These issues have prodded the North into its latest incendiary declarations of intent.

The well-advertised presence and employment of two nuclear-capable U.S. B-2 bombers dropping harmless munitions as part of joint drills simply lit the firecracker of raging irritation. The drills are rehearsals, and North Korea is obviously slated for invasion; nothing routine about them, they are offensive in nature and not defensive as claimed.

The irascible tinder-dry temperament of Pyongyang has had its chain yanked once too often. On the other hand, this is a country on the brink of financial collapse, just as it is on the brink of technological success in engineering advanced nuclear-tipped missiles. The danger of the verbal clashes escalating to physical attacks are clear and present.

Of course there is also the little matter, a not inconsiderable one, of the Kaesong Industrial Park, funded and operated by South Korea to the great financial and employment benefit of North Korea.
Over $92-million in wages for 53,400 North Koreans employed at the complex is funnelled through Kaesong. The free movement of South Koreans across the demilitarized zone into the complex continues unabated as yet.

All the furiously-engaged Dear Leader really is asking for is that the United States recognize the imperial importance of Kim Jong Un, his rule and the magnificence of his country's scientific-technological accomplishments, and their right to possess nuclear arms. For it is those nuclear arms that in fact guarantee the North's security. They stand as assurance the South will not invade, the U.S. will not attack.

North Korea, after all, looks for nothing more, nothing less than its rightful due. Is anyone listening?