Soprano or Stalker

The most common theory on North Korea and their bizarro behaviour is that they are basically a gangster state, using the threat of force to extort as much as they can from the citizenry and their neighbors. What also lends itself to this theory is the hilarity of some of their antics.

The other proposed theory I heard on NPR today, was the stalker theory, that North Korea has essentially been stalking the United States for attention for the past 15 years or so, begging for one-on-one talks and acting all crazy, when the US ignores her (I mean, them). I rather like this theory because it explains the self destructiveness. I mean, the North Koreans seem to me, completely irrational.

But then again, on NPR, they argued the difference between North Korea and Iran, is that while North Korea is irrational, they are not fundamentalists and they tend to have a realist approach to foreign relations. They are willing to take X in exchange for Y and so forth. I'm not sure how this squares with most of their general kookiness, but that's what they were saying on the radio.

Anyhow, I think it's worth pointing out that North Korea is indeed a slave state, in that Kim Jong Il technically is god or something and everyone in the country is officially owned by him.

If I cared about human rights as much as I should, I'd be outraged. We all would be. And maybe we'd talk about it a little more and Guantanomo Bay a little less.

But the truth is that North Korea really isn't that much of a threat. They can't hit us with the long range missiles. I worry slightly that they'll give away a nuke to terrorists, but my gut is that the terrorists and north koreans would have trouble dealing with one another. I dunno, that's just my instinct. So technically, we shouldn't really have to deal with them. Why stir up trouble? Why do we even care about 6 party talks? Just let Japan and China deal with them. Shit, let Japan build a nuke, they could do it in about three weeks. These countries are the ones that should be worried about North Korea, not us.