THE North Korean regime is a thug who knows no one will dare lift a hand against him. Or at least that’s what Kim Jong-Il apparently believes. (“Highest Incarnation of the Revolutionary Comradely Love” is one of his many official titles which also include “Great Man, Who Descended From Heaven,” “Dear Leader, Who is a Perfect Incarnation of the Appearance that a Leader Should Have,” and “Amazing Politician.”) Is he nuts? I don’t think so. He’s definitely a weirdo, but he knows what he’s doing. (It has been reported that he has $4 billion deposited in European banks. He adores Elizabeth Taylor. Hennessy cognac is his drink of choice and lobsters are his favorite food.) His actions seem “rational.” His goal is to protect his turf and ensure the perpetuation of his dynasty. He has been lashing out at perceived threats to provoke a response he assumes will be favorable to him, and he may be right. Former President Carter spelled it out recently — North Korea’s “Peerless Leader” wants direct talks with the wicked imperialist wolf, a.k.a., the U.S.
There was a time when North Korea — together with Cuba, East Germany and Yugoslavia — was considered by Western and Third World Marxists as a truly admirable socialist nation. The unraveling of the Soviet bloc, however, and the collapse of the Berlin Wall revealed the pitiful state of all socialist regimes as well as the hypocrisy, brutality and mendacity of their leaders. Socialism was horrible. It was evil. Only the members of the elite (supposedly nonexistent) were spared from the incompetency, the impoverishment and the imbecility of a system where you could be educated as a doctor or an engineer and fall in line for hours just to buy a bar of soap.
North Korea no longer calls itself Marxist. Its most recent “constitution” doesn’t even mention communism. Its “ideology” is militarist and racist. It is a slave state with nukes — and chemical weapons. And now it wants the world to believe that it is about to go ape with them.
What is to be done with North Korea? I say take out Kim, his family and clique — by any means necessary. But this will be dismissed as an insane proposal. There was a time, however, when you could not do what North Korea has been doing: sinking a ship of another country — a key ally of a superpower — and shelling its territory without any provocation. A century ago, if you did that, you’d expect a full-scale, massive retaliation. Indeed, there would be no problems now in Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan and, yes, North Korea if the U.S. simply flexes its awesome military might without any regard for world opinion. That’s how the former great powers used to conduct business: the Spartans, the Persians, the Romans, the Mongolians, the Ottoman Empire, the Spaniards, the French, the British. They did not apologize for their powerful armies and navies. They used them, particularly when everything else had failed.
But we’re in a kinder and gentler world now. It’s a world where civilized nations are expected to play by the rules of civilization even when dealing with modern-day barbarians who consider such niceties as a weakness that can be exploited. Starting with the Korean War, Uncle Sam has been fighting abominable enemies of freedom using only his left foot. No one wants war, but it seems that to prevent it the U.S. must, from time to time, show that it can also dish it out and not just take it. But no one can say this out loud without being drummed out of polite society.
The real danger to world peace is the failure of civilized nations to act decisively against those who threaten civilization. But the price of civilization, alas, is to act civilized even in the face of unrelenting barbarism.
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