Remaining Calm - No Problem

 "All sides must remain calm and exercise restraint and not take actions which are mutually provocative and must certainly not take actions which will worsen the situation".
Zhang Yesui, deputy foreign minister, Beijing

Yessir!
And to that end, China has summoned the ambassadors of North and South Korea, along with that of the United States. They must discuss the situation that is fast unfolding in a rational venue. Speak reasonably to one another. Discuss their grievances. Come to an agreement that will be mutually acceptable to all concerned. As though to do this is within the bounds of possibility at this juncture.

China and Russia, both onlookers less supportive of South Korea and the United States than they are of North Korea, although their commitment in support of North Korea is not particularly solid, given the ravening lunacy of Kim Jong Un's smugly superior pronouncements of impending disaster for the imperialist dogs who have been entertaining him with their show of might and war-mongering hardware, still hope for the best.

The entire imbroglio has begun to take on the hysteria of a kindergarten passion play. Rationality has been nailed to the cross of bellicose threats despite that the big brothers of North Korea don't want to play the game, and the even bigger brother of South Korea appears to be prepared to escalate the game from possibility to probability, egging the foolish idiocy of a schoolyard bully to belief in his capacity to escape consequences.

War games may have concluded, the United States and South Korea putting aside their gunmetal displays aside for another year, but another game is in play, and one never knows until the actual use of these technologically advanced war marvels, how well they may perform in real time, as opposed to theoretical expectation.

And so the Pentagon has deployed a ballistic missile defence system to the Island of Guam. The better to provide strength to the Pacific region's defences against the potential of an attack by the unstable psychosis-enfeebled minds of Pyongyang instructing the military to proceed as planned and damn the incoming torpedoes.

The latest response to North Korea's promises to annihilate all evidence of the presence of an enemy close to its shores, by installing the American Terminal High Altitude Area Defence System will serve as a further spur to incentivize the North Korean generals to apply yet more gentle pressure of sustaining honour on their Dear Little Leader.

The American bombers, stealth fighters and destroyers floating on the coast all promising a good show for the money that North Korea doesn't have and the United States cannot afford, would go far in other circumstances, on other coastlines in persuading other nations' militaries to stand down from their missile-laden promises, but with North Korea it's anyone's guess what Kim will conceive of next.

This is a country so impoverished, after all, that it hardly blinks in a semblance of fleeting compassion for its own when millions teeter in malnutrition and depression. Its dire need for an infusion of cash and foreign currency has not stopped it from closing down the Kaesong industrial park with its 123 South Korean manufacturers employing 53,000 North Korean workers.

This is a measure of employment in a country incapable of administering itself in a manner that aids the employment of its people living in dire penury. Although the workers do get paid, what they earn is a pittance in comparison to what their government skims off for their treasury which itself is less than what its leading lights feel themselves personally entitled to.

So that sacrifice made, for however long it may take to resurrect the complex back into industrial fitness once the temper tantrum has yet again died down, its embers kept alight for another flare-up at another opportune time in the future when the North has once again launched itself into a mission to mystify and terrorize its neighbours and the international community into sanctions and hope, becomes, perhaps a temporary measure reflecting injured pride.

And then, the enlightened end to the standoff, a collective sigh of relief, and the resumption of normal relations between a normal world and one that is compacted within itself, aloof, ragingly angry and confrontational to a terrorizing degree.