Poor Kim Jong-il. For years he’s been the target of Western ridicule, with his love of Elvis, his eccentric haircut, and his egocentric behavior providing potent pop culture fodder for the talk-show circuits. And all that was before the Team America movie.
Now the world is up in arms-no pun intended-over North Korea’s nuclear weapons test last Monday, and tough talk of sanctions, blockades, and military showdowns has filled the already tense air.
The speed with which sanctions were adopted by the UN Security Council underscores the urgency of the matter. The unanimity with which the resolutions were embraced clearly indicates the opinion of the international community.
Indeed, the world is united in condemning the communist regime. But the question must be raised: why shouldn’t North Korea be allowed to develop nuclear weapons? It is the height of hypocrisy to pass judgment on North Korea when countries such as the United States, India, Israel, and Pakistan all have the nuclear edge. With respect to the rules of international law, North Korea’s nuclear test did not break any treaties. Moreover, the sinister global atmosphere that the test created is fuelled by over-the-top world reaction. Demonizing Kim is our reflexive response to a situation shaped largely by the Western media, and politicians with their own agendas.
We need to relax a little. Kim Jong-il doesn’t want to commit suicide.
The dichotomy of “Us against Them” dutifully doled out by the Bush administration is quite counterproductive, especially when such rhetoric is not accompanied by good old-fashioned diplomacy. While it may be true that in this case the United States is shunning its trademark cowboy diplomacy for multilateral action, it’s hard to cordially engage a nation that you have labeled one-third of an “Axis of Evil.”
The world came much closer to a nuclear catastrophe when Cuba’s Fidel Castro had Soviet missiles aimed at Florida in 1962, but diplomacy saved the day. These days, aggressive rhetoric in a world so deeply divided along religious and ideological lines makes diplomacy that much harder. Regardless, real diplomacy must be doggedly pursued. Economic threats alone have superficial consequences: ask Israel if sanctions against the Palestinians have crippled Hamas.
There are only two surefire-once again, no pun intended-ways to ensure that a nuclear war is avoided: either no country has the bombs, or everyone has them, and in the latter case nations would engage in an endless routine of calling each other’s bluff.
Stability is achieved by ensuring that no one nation can beat its chest and flex its nuclear muscles at the expense of another.
That’s what this is all about, anyway. Kim Jong-il just wants to feel important, to belong to that exclusive, all-male club of nuclear leaders, and to show off his weaponized symbols of virility, potency, and male machismo.
The bigger, the better, right? Poor Kim Jong-il.
He loses in that department, too.
