08-30-2016, 01:45 AM
(08-28-2016, 12:34 PM)Yojimbo Wrote: His father pulled the same shit for two reasons:
1) It allows him to keep control of his people by "showing" them how "strong" N. Korea is.
2) Antagonize the international community until an agreement is made to not launch missiles and then he gets sanctions relaxed and lots of free food and money.
Pretty much this. I took an international politics course and one of the nations that were focused on was North Korea. The prof said that the DPRK regime has 2 goals: to survive by maintaining its political stranglehold and to bilk as much foreign aid as they possibly can. Kim Jong-Il recognized a pattern where if he made a lot of noise then the international community would give him aid in order to placate him. It worked well enough to repeat the strategy many times. His son is merely picking up the old playbook and trying to keep his regime's political stranglehold intact.
Interestingly enough, Kim Jong-Un is trying to attract foreign investment with special "free trade zones" at the same time as he's trying to puff out his chest. Perhaps he's come to the realization that the old strategy has gotten stale?
http://38north.org/2015/11/sez112315/
http://blogs.wsj.com/frontiers/2015/09/15/veteran-investor-expects-explosive-growth-in-north-korea/
