The situation is ironic in so many ways. The US and its allies invaded Iraq and toppled Saddam Hussain for weapons of mass destruction that he didn’t have … and yet there isn’t any collective will to invade North Korea where it does and is blatantly flouting them.
The Russians, invaders of the Ukraine and supporters of Assad in Syria, have been espousing diplomacy and urging the toning down of military posturing (whilst of course conducting their own large scale war manoeuvres).
We are all being preached to on a daily basis about climate change and global warming and our diesel cars are being pilloried whilst Kim Jong-Un is blowing up nuclear weapons with effects in line with 6.8 magnitude earthquakes.
I have been giving the mess some thought and have come up with an idea.
Using the combined financial might of the Chinese, Russians and the US, purchase North Korea and allow the entire DPRK leadership to retire in style and anonymity. Then draw straws for who owns the country (and, depending who won, potentially even re unify Korea afterwards).
I know that it sounds a bit bonkers and fairy-tale-unlikely but it’s perhaps not as ridiculous an idea as it might seem. The DPRK leadership, as unfathomable and Orwellian (think 1984) as it seems to be, must have some long game in mind and it probably isn’t mutually assured destruction. Maybe the whole nuclear weapons thing is just seen as some kind of “nice little earner”.
On the basis that war is undesirable, the alternative is just to leave the DPRK to make its bombs – what will the regime do with them anyway? If Jong Un ever launched a genuine nuke in anger ... his country would be annihilated. I can’t imagine Trump hesitating to hit the big red reprisal button.
Letting them get on with it, whilst keeping the sanctions tight, will deprive the DPRK of funding. The regime will have nuclear weapons but its people will be poor, hungry and living in the dark. Maybe the population will eventually revolt …
But as the army seems to employ most of them, maybe my idea of a money driven, corporate style take over has greater probability of happening.
In the meantime, I am glad that I am not living in Japan. I can’t imagine how scary it must be for the Japanese when the air raid sirens go off without warning.
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