Sierra Mike
12-27-2002, 09:55 AM
According to Asia Times columnist Bradley Martin, it's all Washington's fault...
A quarter-century ago, Dear Leader Kim Jong-il was sharing absolute power in North Korea with his father, Great Leader Kim Il-sung. Their principal American-handler was Kim Yong-nam, a bespectacled functionary with Groucho Marx eyebrows - but no one-liners and no cigar. When I met him in 1979 his specialty was earnest, three-hour monologues over lunch.
And now? Kim Il-sung died in 1994, but otherwise at the top it's business as usual. Kim Jong-il is the Great Leader, flexing the dynasty's still enormous muscle. Kim Yong-nam acts as head of state.
In the United States, four presidents have come and gone, along with their principal North Korea-watchers.
The discontinuity in Washington may help to explain what otherwise would be a mystery: how the current US team imagines it can focus on invading Iraq while consigning to a back burner North Korea's revived threats to make trouble big time. Read all about it at Move over Iraq, North Korea wants the spotlight (http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/DL25Dg01.html)
SM
A quarter-century ago, Dear Leader Kim Jong-il was sharing absolute power in North Korea with his father, Great Leader Kim Il-sung. Their principal American-handler was Kim Yong-nam, a bespectacled functionary with Groucho Marx eyebrows - but no one-liners and no cigar. When I met him in 1979 his specialty was earnest, three-hour monologues over lunch.
And now? Kim Il-sung died in 1994, but otherwise at the top it's business as usual. Kim Jong-il is the Great Leader, flexing the dynasty's still enormous muscle. Kim Yong-nam acts as head of state.
In the United States, four presidents have come and gone, along with their principal North Korea-watchers.
The discontinuity in Washington may help to explain what otherwise would be a mystery: how the current US team imagines it can focus on invading Iraq while consigning to a back burner North Korea's revived threats to make trouble big time. Read all about it at Move over Iraq, North Korea wants the spotlight (http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/DL25Dg01.html)
SM