North Korea: bellicose statements and actions to get foreign aid?

Rising official dissent appears to be spreading across the country from those who have lost political and military power. Fabricating an external threat may be meant to suppress dissatisfaction among unhappy North Korean elite. The only product the North Korean economy now produces of any consequence are weapons, since it cannot feed itself or provide consumer products for its population (except through imports from China).

Kim promised—but has not delivered—more food, economic reform, improvements in public services, and a way out of the country’s slide into oblivion.

Why North Korea Is Testing Nuclear Weapons Now US News, By ANDREW NATSIOS February 8, 2013 The first test of the Obama administration’s second term foreign policy team is shaping up to be North Korea’s upcoming nuclear explosion. Korean President Kim Jong Un last week declared martial law in anticipation of the country’s third nuclear test that Un has reportedly ordered be conducted before the middle of February, which will coincidentally occur on his late father’s (and former leader of North Korea) birthday.

This week a bellicose and belligerent North Korean government put on its official website a bizarre and provocative video of the bombing of what appears to be New York City with the caption: “Somewhere in the United States, black clouds of smoke are billowing… It seems that the nest of wickedness is ablaze with the fire started by itself.” The video includes the launch of a North Korean missile, implying that if the United States puts too much pressure on them the consequence will be a nuclear response. The Chinese foreign minister on Wednesday issued a stern public warning to North Korea against the test, and the Chinese Communist Party official party newspaper published an unprecedented editorial saying, “If North Korea insists on a third nuclear test despite attempts to dissuade it, it must pay a heavy price.” North Korea is in no position to anger its only remaining patron and ally, and yet it may go ahead with the nuclear test anyway……

Why, then, is the 28-year-old ruler of North Korea, Kim Jong Un—himself in office for just over a year—exploding a nuclear weapon right now? One reason may be to distract the attention of Communist Party cadres, the North Korean military, and its long suffering population to a fictional external threat. He has been purging its geriatric government and military officialdom to put in place younger men, loyal to him, but the change of leadership is not going well. Rising official dissent appears to be spreading across the country from those who have lost political and military power. Fabricating an external threat may be meant to suppress dissatisfaction among unhappy North Korean elite. The only product the North Korean economy now produces of any consequence are weapons, since it cannot feed itself or provide consumer products for its population (except through imports from China).

Kim promised—but has not delivered—more food, economic reform, improvements in public services, and a way out of the country’s slide into oblivion. A sizeable portion of the general population has no economic livelihood or political power to command food and may be facing sustained hunger and even famine in some areas. The World Food Program in the summer of 2012 issued two reports which warned against a famine in 2013 because of a severe drought followed by widespread flooding and a typhoon which did extensive damage to the rice and maize crops……

instead of reforming their economy and agricultural system, they fed their hungry population propaganda instead of food,…..

The North’s upcoming test and threats to bomb the United States are a crude attempt to intimidate the South Korean, Japanese, U.S., and Chinese governments into making economic concessions to resuscitate their sclerotic economy or provide food aid. All four governments have at varying times provided assistance to the North, three of them in exchange for ending the weapons programs. Pyongyang took the aid and continued to build their arsenals. By connecting aid to the weapons programs we have trained the North to continue building missile and nuclear bombs, since it is the one way the North can capture their neighbor’s attention and get help.

North Korea has resolutely avoided any major economic reforms to build a market economy, because the leadership believes reform poses too many risks to the continuity of the Kim dynasty…… http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/world-report/2013/02/08/why-north-korea-is-testing-nuclear-weapons-now

February 9, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | North Korea, weapons and war

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