Travel Without Moving - Korean Demilitarized Zone

Continuing the travel without moving series, the Korean Demilitarized Zone remains a hot spot with North Korea publicly stating its ambtions of joining the nuclear club. How big of a threat is the statement anyway? I believe it's a desperate move from the North Koreans' side, while trying to put itself on the world's map again -- and the news of course.


What they lost was the momentum, one that Iran greatly took advantage of. Think about it, as the U.S's War on Terror is like any"product concept", it inevitably passes through introduction, growth, maturity and decline stages in respect to public relations. Abu Ghraib's offensive PSYOPS case, a national disaster in between, Muhammad's cartoons, and NSA's fiasco seemed to further strenghten the momentum of announcing their intentions without fear of having the U.S in their backyard -- smart move fully taking advantage of the situation and definitely resulting in a future dimplomatic solution.



While North Korea is presumably hoping to improve the nation's dignity and reputation as scietifically sophisticated enough to be recognized, building nuclear weapons when the central statistical bureau releases reports of people dying out of starvation reminds of the best Cold War strategy game scenario I ever played.


No real army for the regime, but sneaky partisans everywhere, no roads, no buildings, but nuclear bombs and cruise missiles in every city, as well as income distribution model based on the "model of leftovers", thus, riots and lack of any production capabilities. I remember watching a documentary where a soldier was trying to broadcast over the border, and of course, North Korea's jammers in action. Censoring news, obsessive self-regulation practices, total denial of problems, and keeping everyone in a twisted reality for as long as necessary is a daily practice -- still, there are capitalists trying to operate business ventures there.



What the international community could possibly do is not to lose touch with these people, and constantly "ping" their diplomacy while trying to achieve bargain deals -- the problem is that even Asian countries find North Korea a spooky place. Kim Jong-il is not a mad man, but a man looking for attention, give him some without having him "envision" a conventional weaponry phrase in his country's history.