So, the new dear/supreme/Beloved leader of North Korea is threatening to nuke his southern neighbours.
I kind of wonder why.
I am aware that South Korea and the US were engaging in joint military exercises. Whish was unnecessary, perhaps a little provocative. But nuclear war? That seems a little excessive as a response.
I fully recognise that the reporting we in the west hear might be less than neutral. But I do have the internet. I can read from other countries and continents. And having read much I think there is something irrational and unpredictable about the North Korean regime.
This does not mean they are totally bonkers in feeling unsettled by the joint military exercises between the south and the US. And when leaders of already nuclear armed nations get together and tell the world that North Korean nuclearisation is 'unacceptable' that is just hypocrisy.
Had Iraq actually had WMD like North Korea does, it would never have been invaded. Whatever else they say, the invasion of Iraq reteaches the old lesson that actions speak louder than words. Western leaders may say they will be friends to leaders who (like Saddam and Gadafi) ditch their nuclear programmes. In practice, both Saddam and Gadafi are gone. The North Korean and Iranian regimes live on.
But, despite all of that, there really is something dangerous and unpredicatable about Kim Jong Un. Some say he can't quite control the army, and the anti western rhetoric is about trying to impress them.
The general consensus seems to be that he doesn't really mean to blow us all up.
The whole thing does strike me as something akin to a teenagers tantrum. He has grown up secluded and spoilt. Detached fromt he reality of ordinary people.
Whatever anyone says, in a high stakes game of chicken, it is possible that a twitchy finger may press the button.
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