Monday, February 10, 2003
True, the "evil" part of George W Bush's infamous "axis of evil" tag is a no-brainer (though the "axis" bit is a non-starter). When Newsweek gave Pyongyang the palm as world's worst regime, I had no complaint. North Korea's horrors are hardly news - but still worth remembering as new data come in, and in case anyone (in Seoul, for instance) is tempted to play them down, misguidedly, in the quest for detente.
Yet I also support that quest for detente. I certainly don't see how any non-Korean has a right to try to stop Koreans from seeking reconciliation. And we can surely agree that North Korea is one tough nut to crack. As many an analyst has noted, in dealing with Pyongyang there simply are no good options.
The abominators beg to differ. No shades of gray for them: North Korea is vile, and they're apoplectic. True, behind all the growling they have no more clue than the rest of us on how actually to de-fang the beast. But they know whom they hate, and it isn't just Pyongyang. Those lily-livered deluded types who believe you can appease Kim Jong-il - buy him off, even - why, they're almost as bad as he is.
Take, for example, a sour little item in January 27's Asian Wall Street Journal, headed "The not so intelligent Kim". This bridled at any suggestion that Kim Jong-il might be in possession of a brain. No matter that the Dear Leader's brinkmanship looks to be running rings around Dubya currently. For the AWSJ, the fact that North Korea is "tottering on the brink of collapse" (can they be so sure?) suffices. Kim is a "nasty dictator ... brutal tyrant ... brutal [again], evil and duplicitous". Ergo, not intelligent.
