Posted on 02/05/2010 1:44:52 AM PST by ErnstStavroBlofeld
A competition between military leaders to show the most loyalty toward North Korean leader Kim Jong-il may have been behind the North’s firing artillery shells near the inter-Korean maritime border in the Yellow Sea last week.
But that may not have been the only motive. Kim Jong-il reportedly gave the go-ahead for the North’s military to fire shells and it’s possible the move was meant as a saber-rattling display intended to gain leverage with the United States. “It is highly likely that the reclusive nation’s excessive devotion to its leader led to the shooting,” a high-ranking South Korean defense official in a position of receiving intelligence about North Korea said yesterday on condition of anonymity. “But I also believe that Pyongyang is taking advantage of these military provocations to both strengthen the solidarity of its military and gain the upper hand in future negotiations with the United States.”
The official also noted that Kim does not seem to be working at top capacity, and that gives the military a chance to demonstrate its own power. “The North’s military gets louder when Kim can’t keep up with his duties,” he said. “The North’s leader has been relying heavily on the military under the military-first policy. Once he offered full support to the military, he could not ignore its needs.”
Another defense official who asked not to be named attributed the action to a fierce power struggle between hard-liners and those in the North’s military leadership who believe more inter-Korean talks are necessary.
(Excerpt) Read more at joongangdaily.joins.com ...
These are the Authors:By Kim Min-seok, Lee Min-yong
All I can say is the North definitely has 3 years during which they could completely go peaceful and get money galore bailout aid can’t-give-enough unbelievably good deal from the West. Obozo & co. would be... he would fly there and have it look like the olympics (well, another inauguration) if he thought he could claim success at getting the NK military to take a furlough already.
I mean really, that place is so backward you couldn’t invade it unless you brought the kitchen sink and food for millions of people with you. It’s like Haiti, an earthquake would just cause “shaking” at this point. And they have this wacky “war” thing in their head, seriously, the Chinese would have to fund NK (food, supplies) _entirely_ for any war they get into, and if NK was fighting us, that would really mean that CHINA WOULD BE FINANCING BOTH SIDES OF THE SAME WAR. Are there any history buffs who can think of any time when that has ever actually happened ?
Korea ping
Thank you for the updates for Korea. My best friend from forever is over there and it is easier to support him if I know what is going on. He is pretty new there, but in the upper echelons, he seems overwhelmed by the constant hostilities. If there is a Korea ping list, I would love to be on it. TY-MICB
They are between a rock and a hard place.
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