What looks like bellicose behavior to the shallow-minded is but additional code for the select few to decipher. The North’s deadly bombardment of Yeonpyeong Island in 2010 was thus a plea to be taken more seriously in peace talks (as Jimmy Carter said at the time). And the signing of the Agreed Framework of 1994, in which North Korea and the US promised to work toward normalizing relations, something that would have deprived the North of all reason to exist as a separate state? No code there, just politically suicidal good faith – on Kim Jong Il’s part at least.
These acrobatics are very much an American thing. No one does wishful thinking like we do. I don’t see South Korean progressivists pretending that the regime’s every word and deed can be boiled down to the same reassuring message. In fact, part of the reason many of them feel a sneaking admiration for the North is because it follows through on its Yankee-defying rhetoric. But that’s another topic. [B.R. Myers]
So what does Myers think is really going on with North Korea? It is what I have been saying for years North Korea wants to create tension in the US-ROK alliance that would lead to the ultimate withdrawal of USFK:
The next stage of inquiry is learning to discern the real from the sham, the heartfelt from the feigned. This is not an exact science, I admit, but neither is it mere guesswork. When a regime’s fundamental, unchanging interests line up with a seventy-year pattern of behavior, and an equally old ideological tradition, and now with its “outer-track” propaganda, we can be as sure of its intentions as we can be about anything in world affairs.
So I’m going to say this once again: North Korea’s immediate goal is the withdrawal of US troops. Its ultimate goal is the unification of the peninsula under the star flag. And yes, it has good reason to believe this can be done without a war.
I highly recommend reading the whole thing at the link.
Need to be mindful when the DPRK makes statements like this:
“Last week Trump claimed our leadership declared war on … this is clearly a declaration of war on all members states,” Ri said. “The whole world should remember U.S. declared war on our people. The U.N. charter stipulates right of defense in charter.”
Sounds like someone pre-emptively trying to justify something their about to do.
ChickenHead
7 years ago
It is coming, baby!
Those of you in Korea better have a plan and the resources to act it out.
Chances are NK will get a strong peepee slapping very soon and be faced with a choice of sucking it up or facing regime change.
…but they may choose unwisely.
My biggest fear is not North Korean tanks… it is hungry North Koreans flooding over the border and disrupting the calm and comfortable South Korean way of life.
Need to be mindful when the DPRK makes statements like this:
“Last week Trump claimed our leadership declared war on … this is clearly a declaration of war on all members states,” Ri said. “The whole world should remember U.S. declared war on our people. The U.N. charter stipulates right of defense in charter.”
Sounds like someone pre-emptively trying to justify something their about to do.
It is coming, baby!
Those of you in Korea better have a plan and the resources to act it out.
Chances are NK will get a strong peepee slapping very soon and be faced with a choice of sucking it up or facing regime change.
…but they may choose unwisely.
My biggest fear is not North Korean tanks… it is hungry North Koreans flooding over the border and disrupting the calm and comfortable South Korean way of life.