Lace Hedkase I originally wrote this as an answer to a question asked on Yahoo! Answers, but I decided I'd also post it on here because it's something that's been on my mind a lot lately, and I really focused a lot of energy into writing this. So here you have it: Kim Jong-il. Stalinistic manipulative communist dictator that wears the same coat and sunglasses in just about every picture of him. He's got as much personality as a piece of wood, and ironically he's the modern day cult of personality. He's corrupt and his father was corrupt. You might say he was raised that way, but it's still no excuse for his actions. To be honest I understand that he wants his country and himself to become a dominate figure in the world, but threats and breaches in agreements are in no way going to benefit him or the country. North Koreans worship Kim Jong-il and his deceased father (Kim Il-sung) as 'god-like' figures, which is really just a shock. When I think about it I don't even believe he or his father ever gave a rats ass about these people. Kim Jong-il has been letting millions of North Koreans starve throughout the years, and when he could be focused on harvesting crops for his people, he's too busy 'harvesting' plutonium for a nuclear warhead. I can't even put into words how thankful I am to not have been born under that dictatorship. In North Korea life is quite simply a lie. No one in that country is living a 'real' life because every aspect of their life is governed by some whack job. I feel bad for the children born into that world because they don't know what's going on outside the country. They don't know there's a free world out there, and the freedom they believe they have is just a deformed web of lies. I don't blame the children and young adults for believing in Kim Jong-il because they have no other choice. Under Kim Jong-il everything and I mean EVERYTHING is controlled. He's the epitome of totalitarianism. It's sickening really, but it's not like we can just go over there and drop a bomb to solve all of our problems. It would be like Hiroshima all over again, where although it won the war for the US, many innocent people died in the process who may have been anti-war in the first place. The major concern right now is whether or not North Korea's going to launch another missile. Rumors started in some Japanese newspapers that anywhere between June 25 - July 10 there could be another missile launched headed towards Hawaii, with a chance of there specifically being one on Independence Day. I personally doubt that one will be launched on that specific day because I'm sure that Kim Jong-il realizes the amount vigilance that will take place on that day, however from a different perspective there's no way of knowing how much of a nut he really is. If he does attempt to launch a missile the US has stationed anti- missiles around Hawaii with an 18 out of 22 success rate (and as for the four failed attempts it was said that the target malfunctioned, not the anti-missile). In order to reach Hawaii the missile would need to travel 4500 miles, and it's believed that one of North Korea's missiles could travel up to 4000 miles. It's a 500 mile difference, but it's still too close for comfort. What also concerns me is a North Korean attack on South Korea. I've talked to people and made friends with people living in South Korea, and I don't want to see anything bad happen to them or their families. Seoul, the capital of South Korea (and probable target of North Korea) is only about 120 miles away from North Korea's capital Pyongyang, so if North Korea did decide to attack there wouldn't be much of a reaction time for South Korea. I may live on the other side of the world, but it's still a scary thought. With the Myanmar situation that's been going on I couldn't understand what the big deal was about a North Korean ship heading there, but then I read an article about how in the past North Korea traded weaponry and made attempts to trade Scuds with the also troubled nation. What's frightening about this happening today is the possibility that Myanmar officials could trade off the weaponry given to them by the North Koreans to countries that pose a threat to the US, like Iraq. It's a pretty shitty situation. There are still two American journalists trapped in North Korea and were sentenced to hard labor for 12 years (that would be equivalent to 2/3 of my entire lifetime thus far!) When I first heard that I had to laugh because that was the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard in my entire life, without a doubt, but now that I know that they actually are being held captive it's really horrifying. The North Koreans believed them to be spies even though their real intention for being over there was to document the human trafficking of women who escaped North Korea and fled to China. It's also widely agreed that North Korea is using the two journalists as a bargaining chip, which is just plain dirty tactics. I don't think the two journalists, Euna Lee and Laura Ling, will end up serving those 12 years, but if they did they would be 48 and 44 years old when they would finally be released. I feel bad because Laura Ling has a little 4 year old daughter who hasn't seen her mother in months, and there's a possibility that she won't see her again until she's 16 years old! It's not fair for her. I don't know how all of this is going to end, no one does, but it would be best if Kim Jong-il was at least willing to take part in a conference to negotiate. Things don't seem to be heading that way so far because Kim Jong-il's new tactic appears to be, "do what I want, when I want," by pushing the UN to its limits (kind of reminds me of a typical teenage attitude). If negotiation doesn't come about we know the US is not going to stand idly by, so more likely then not it will trigger the comings of a second Korean War, and at that point Kim Jong-un, the son of Kim Jong-il, could become the new leader of the nation. One half of me wants this to be resolved peacefully, but I know that things will just go back to the way they were before this whole mess, with Kim Jong-il still the reining tyrant, still the 38th Parallel separation of North and South, and still with the seemingly everlasting conflicts. The other half hopes we will go to war because that's the only way to bring down a dictatorship. The chances of Kim Jong-il deciding he'd rather have North Korea join back up with South Korea, while putting aside his dictatorship, and then becoming one big happy non-nuclear peace loving family has about the same chance of me winning American Idol (I make Steven "Red" Thoen look like a pro). ;p We'll just have to wait and see what will happen over the course of the next few weeks or so. Whatever does occur hopefully it's for the best. All is 'unfair' in love and war. |