Puppet Master

Perhaps B. Raman said it best in yesterday's posting, "After Obama assumed office on January 20,2009, whatever hesitation was there in North Korea's policy-making circles regarding the likely response of the Obama Administration has disappeared and its leadership now feels it can defy the US and the international community with impunity". This analysis was not arrived at arbitrarily. It was gleaned from Obama’s own statements and infantile decisions since his election.

To be fair, we must recognize that Kim Jong-Il, has been conducting himself belligerently even during the Clinton and Bush administrations as these too were judged to be soft towards NK’s blatant extortion ploys. Raman writes further, “A series of actions taken by the Obama Administration have created an impression in Iran, the Af-Pak region, China and North Korea that Obama does not have the political will to retaliate decisively if they act in a manner detrimental to US interests and to international peace and security. Among such actions, one could cite the soft policy towards Iran, the reluctance to articulate strongly the US determination to support the security interests of Israel, the ambivalent attitude towards Pakistan despite its continued support to anti-India terrorist groups and its ineffective action against the sanctuaries of Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Pakistani territory, its silence on the question of the violation of the human rights of the Burmese people and the continued illegal detention of Aung San Suu Kyi by the military regime in Myanmar, and its silence on the Tibetan issue. Its over-keenness to court Beijing in order to seek China's support for dealing with the economic crisis and its anxiety to ensure the continued flow of Chinese money into the US for investment in the US Treasury Bonds have also added to the soft image of the US.”

I would only add that everything North Korea does, it does with China’s blessing. Jong-Il’s regime could not continue to exist without Chinese support. To ignore the fact that China is the ultimate puppet master in the region is simply delusional. How smart it would be for the U.S. to pressure China at this point – China, an important customer of U.S. Treasuries – is quite another matter.