Saturday, January 04, 2014

The world needs to think very carefully about how to deal with Kim Jong-un

The world needs to think very carefully about how to deal with Kim Jong-un – Telegraph Blogs
Kim Jong-un, the North Korean Dictator, is obviously insane. First heallegedly had his ex-girlfriend executed by machine gun.
Now it is being reported that he ordered his uncle to be torn apart by savage dogs.
Up until now the conventional opinion about Kim Jong-un has been that he falls into the prototype of demented Marxist despots.
I don't think this fully accounts for his character.
To understand Kim Jong-un, one must read Suetonius's The Twelve Caesars. Kim is comparable to a figure such as Caligula or Nero, both of whom were driven insane by absolute power. Eventually they were killed, but not before they had wreaked terrible havoc.
This is why I believe that the world should be profoundly concerned by Kim Jong-un's behavior. In his televised New Year address on wednesday, he said: 
"Should another war break out on this land, it will result in a deadly nuclear catastrophe and the United States can never be safe.
This sounds to me very much like the threat of a preemptive nuclear strike.
I think we need to take this threat very seriously.
Would Nero or Caligula have hesitated a moment before ordering nuclear destruction?
I tend to think not.
The world needs to ponder very carefully what to do about Kim Jong-un.

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