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The Frustration of North Korea`s Dictator

One can only imagine the frustration North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il must be feeling now that he has been upstaged once again by events in the Middle East. Speculation had risen in recent days that Japan was considering a break with its post-war tradition of pacifism, sparking alarm in a former Japanese colonial project, South Korea. While Japanese officials had stressed that the speculation was merely that, speculation, nerves were rattled. There were also those who figured that North Korea?s recent missile-enacted brinkmanship was a way to bring the attention of the U.S. back to Northeast Asia.

North Korea left six-party talks between itself, the United States, Russia, China, South Korea and Japan, and has since snubbed at any efforts to bring Pyongyang back to the negotiating table. For a time, the North demanded that the United States open direct talks with the Stalinist stalwart in exchange for not carrying out missile tests, but America refused. China, a key ally of North Korea, had warned the dictatorship against carrying out the tests but Pyongyang ignored Beijing?s warnings and tested six Scud-type missiles and one Taepodong-2 missile.

The Taepodong-2 test had concerned Washington, for it is believed that in a modified form the missile could be armed with chemical, biological or nuclear weapons and reach the western United States. It is believed that North Korea has at least two nuclear weapons (as per its own claims) and possesses the fissile material to have built or to build six or eight more. U.S. worries, however, were premature as less than two minutes after its launch on July 4, America?s Independence Day, the Taepodong-2 made it no farther than the Sea of Japan.