North Korea much like Cuba has been thumbing its nose at America with gay abandon. Kim has the world’s attention not only because of the threat to the US, but because much of this 34-year-old dictator is shrouded in mystery.
In North Korea, and for all those nations and people who hate America’s gigantic and killing war machine, Kim Jong Un is nothing less than a rock star. Indeed, since he has changed his hairstyle into a punky design, round, “short and fat”, as Trump would call him, he has consolidated his nononsense, edgy, ‘I care a damn’ diplomatic posturing – though without the nuances or subtlety of basic international diplomacy. His maniacal laughter, or clapping with an admiring military audience, or happily watching a Korean opera, have been photographed by his loyalist media for the world to see, in a country, where no dissent or freedom of expression is allowed, and punishment is severe for little violations. However, most significant is his obsession with the nuclear missile launches which he celebrates with heightened pomp and glory.
His famous photograph of sitting in a launch field, with an empty landscape stretching into a horizon, his binoculars on the table, laughing his heart out when another of his alleged, maybe, mythical missiles fly off the handle, has become legendary. One of his missiles from an unknown island flew across a nervous Japan. Another flew in the distance, with him proudly proclaiming that it can hit any of the American cities he wants. In his own capital, Pyongyang, giant screens celebrate mythical and simulated explosions apparently rocking and exploding American cities, even as the audience claps and rejoice in a roaring collective.
Most funny has been the war of words between Kim and Donald Trump. Indeed, Kim was reasonably circumspect with Barack Obama, keeping his cool and a certain diplomatic distance. Not so with a belligerent and undiplomatic Trump, who, his critics believes, can use Twitter to utter any nonsense post-midnight, while watching Fox TV, or the first thing after he gets up in the morning.
Consequently, the war of words has become a dangerous portent for a huge conflict in the Korean peninsula, with Japan, South Korea and other countries in the neighbourhood, forever on the edge
Trump’s verbal duel with Kim has upped the fear of war across the globe, warned a desperate World Economic Forum recently. Seventy-nine per cent of experts polled for its Global Risks Report believed there was an increased risk of military conflicts in 2018. “The escalation of geopolitical risks was one of the most pronounced trends of 2017, particularly in Asia, where the North Korea crisis has arguably brought the world closer than it has been for decades to the possible use of nuclear weapons,” it said.
Amidst a barrage of slander and abuses, Trump threatened that he too has a nuclear button. On other occasions, he threatened to teach Kim a lesson of his life – even wipe out North Korea from the map of the world. Kim responded with equal candour.
“Whatever Trump might have expected, he will face results beyond his expectation. I will surely and definitely tame the mentally deranged US dotard with fire,” he said in a statement. When Trump went on a two-week Asian tour, North Korea described it as a “warmonger’s visit”. It described Trump's speech in South Korea as “reckless remarks by an old lunatic”.
Backed tacitly by China, which overtly calls for a peaceful neighbourhood, strategic lessening of tension and conflict, restraint of words and action, Kim has been flexing his muscles since the time North Korea showcased his nuclear capabilities with so-called missile warheads which, he threatened, could wipe out American cities in a jiffy. Often, critics believe that the nuclear factory almost looks like an old, dilapidated tubewell station or a similar industrial unit. Others believe, however, that the missiles are not mythical, but real, and, thereby, are dangerous, especially for South Korea, which has a huge American military base.
Of late, diplomatic advances have moved in a positive direction. Observers believe that both Trump and Kim are biding their time, and looking for solutions, despite the apparent belligerence. It started with the Winter Olympics in South Korea, with Kim sending his gorgeous sister, who was treated as a state guest by the South Korean leadership. She was made to sit in the same enclosure with US Vice President Mike Pence, and, by the looks of it, she seemed to care a damn. So much so, her tough and nuanced diplomatic stance was widely welcomed by the South Koreans, even as she gifted a ‘special letter’ from her brother to the South Korean president. That, apparently, broke the ice, with more visits planned in the days to come, and Kim inviting the South Koreans to his country.
Then followed the secret journey on a long green train to Beijing. North Korea has an obsession with trains and long journeys, apparently loaded with luxury goods, the finest alcohol and other forms of recreation. Kim’s father, Kim Jong Il, had an obsessive fear of flying. Anyway, he would never travel out of his country. He would only occasionally go on a long journey from Vladivostok in Siberia to Moscow, to meet his Russian allies. Kim, instead, went to Beijing.
He was grandly hosted by Chinese President Xi Jin Ping. Kim was rather subdued in front of the Chinese President, now appointed to the throne for his entire lifetime. The body language was clear; China was the big brother and it advised Kim to slow down, take his time, cut the belligerent rhetoric, and go for talks.
That is why, in the days that followed, Trump and Kim have agreed to talk via mediators. Kim has apparently already met the CIA chief. Sanctions are obviously hurting his country. And no one really wants a war.
With South Korea showing a generous and gracious streak, Kim has been obliging. Cultural exchange is one of the methods to heal old wounds. In both the countries, the wounds of division and partition are still simmering. People cry remembering each other’s past with great intensity. Unification, an impossible dream, is a deeply ingrained desire in the political unconscious across the heavily guarded borders and militarized zone. This might seem a distant dream as of now, but the longing itself can transform into a larger and peaceful social contract in the days to come. Indeed, that will be good news for both Kim and the world.