info
Google Groups no longer supports new Usenet posts or subscriptions. Historical content remains viewable.
Dismiss
Trump Is Giving NK What It Wants
9 views
Skip to first unread message
Pelle Svanslös
Aug 12, 2017, 5:59:29 AM8/12/17
to
SEOUL, South Korea — A few years ago, when I was a reporter working in
Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital, I went to visit a kindergarten. While
I was there, I picked up a children’s book called “A Hedgehog Defeats
the Tiger.” It was a tale, a North Korean told me, about a feisty little
hedgehog that bests a much larger and fiendishly ravenous tiger using
the only weapons at its disposal: the small but sharp quills on its
back. The tiny but clever hedgehog pounces on the big nose of the
blundering tiger, blinding him into submission.
“Do you know who the tiger is?” the North Korean asked me, an American,
with a slight smirk.
From kindergarten classrooms to the halls of power, this is how North
Korea views itself: as a scrappy little country that has been bullied by
the United States for far too long and is willing to fight back.
If President Trump thinks that his threats last week of “fire and fury”
and weapons “locked and loaded” have North Koreans quaking in their
boots, he should think again.
From the time they are toddlers, North Koreans are raised to see the
United States as their enemy.
There is method to the madness. Mr. Kim is using the threat of attack
from the United States to enforce a sense of unity among North Koreans.
He knows that few things work better to inspire nationalism and
patriotism than the threat of invasion.
This propaganda is especially effective with Koreans, whose cultural
identity has been shaped by thousands of years of aggression from
outside forces: the Chinese, the Mongols, the Japanese, the Americans.
The regime has used this narrative to justify pouring more than a fifth
of its meager national budget into defense at a time when millions of
North Koreans go hungry every day.
Mr. Trump’s fiery rhetoric mainly serves to advance Kim Jong-un’s agenda
by giving him more reason and justification to build nuclear weapons
under the guise of protecting his people.
The savvy move by Washington would be to find a face-saving way to back
down from the escalating rhetoric and to stop giving Kim Jong-un what he
wants: propaganda victories and a justification to keep building bombs
and missiles.
But perhaps Mr. Trump is taking a page out of Mr. Kim’s playbook: He’s
drumming up fear and provoking America’s enemies in order to distract
from his own problems and establish his reputation as a leader who can
defend his people, even if it comes at a cost to global peace and security.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/11/opinion/sunday/trump-what-north-korea-wants.html
--
“Donald Trump is the weak man’s vision of a strong man.”
-- Charles Cooke
Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital, I went to visit a kindergarten. While
I was there, I picked up a children’s book called “A Hedgehog Defeats
the Tiger.” It was a tale, a North Korean told me, about a feisty little
hedgehog that bests a much larger and fiendishly ravenous tiger using
the only weapons at its disposal: the small but sharp quills on its
back. The tiny but clever hedgehog pounces on the big nose of the
blundering tiger, blinding him into submission.
“Do you know who the tiger is?” the North Korean asked me, an American,
with a slight smirk.
From kindergarten classrooms to the halls of power, this is how North
Korea views itself: as a scrappy little country that has been bullied by
the United States for far too long and is willing to fight back.
If President Trump thinks that his threats last week of “fire and fury”
and weapons “locked and loaded” have North Koreans quaking in their
boots, he should think again.
From the time they are toddlers, North Koreans are raised to see the
United States as their enemy.
There is method to the madness. Mr. Kim is using the threat of attack
from the United States to enforce a sense of unity among North Koreans.
He knows that few things work better to inspire nationalism and
patriotism than the threat of invasion.
This propaganda is especially effective with Koreans, whose cultural
identity has been shaped by thousands of years of aggression from
outside forces: the Chinese, the Mongols, the Japanese, the Americans.
The regime has used this narrative to justify pouring more than a fifth
of its meager national budget into defense at a time when millions of
North Koreans go hungry every day.
Mr. Trump’s fiery rhetoric mainly serves to advance Kim Jong-un’s agenda
by giving him more reason and justification to build nuclear weapons
under the guise of protecting his people.
The savvy move by Washington would be to find a face-saving way to back
down from the escalating rhetoric and to stop giving Kim Jong-un what he
wants: propaganda victories and a justification to keep building bombs
and missiles.
But perhaps Mr. Trump is taking a page out of Mr. Kim’s playbook: He’s
drumming up fear and provoking America’s enemies in order to distract
from his own problems and establish his reputation as a leader who can
defend his people, even if it comes at a cost to global peace and security.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/11/opinion/sunday/trump-what-north-korea-wants.html
--
“Donald Trump is the weak man’s vision of a strong man.”
-- Charles Cooke
calim...@gmx.de
Aug 12, 2017, 6:14:39 AM8/12/17
to
Max
0 new messages