01.02.2003 12:51
This morning on NPR there was a commentary/news story about North Korea. It was almost amusing to listen to, but in a bizarre sort of way. To give some background to the whole story, obviously everyone knows that North Korean is digging themselves into a hole – reactivating nuclear energy factory, kicking UN inspectors out of the country, carrying weapons into the DMZ established after the Korean War in 1953, etc. What I think that is “amusing” about the whole thing is that they seem to be acting like a small child, pushing the (nuclear) envelope. So how NPR described it, we (the U.S.) promised to help North Korean build two nuclear power plants that weren’t so old and malfunctioning that they cause a threat to the whole world by simply being active, promised to normalize relations (“play nice”) and not interfere in North Korean domestic affairs (“we promise to pull our CIA dobermans off you and not to off your leaders”). We started down this road and then last year about this time, Bush included the North Koreans as part of the “Axis of Evil”. Since then, things started to go down hill – certainly more recently, but behind the scenes for all of 2002. Oh, and now they are willing to talk with us, although we evidently aren’t on speaking terms with them.
So, what does this all mean to me? Well, I see a country acting like a little kid (“You called me a bad name!”) so they are being “obstreperous” by pulling these stunts and want the attention of the U.S.? (“We might stop if the U.S. talks to us.”) Except doing all the things that they are doing isn’t exactly making them popular (and if I lived in Seoul, I’d be leaving….). Like a little kid, they almost seem to want a reward for being bad. Whatever. Messed up.
For your enjoyment, I thought I would put up the weather report for Seattle/Kirkland for the next 5 days. Ad infinitum.
do until 0 != 0
weather = rain
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