Kim Jong Il: North Korea closer to conquering outer space.

April 6, 12:49 PMForeign Policy ExaminerAimee Kligman

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South Korean protesters participate in a rally against North Korea's missiles near the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, South Korea, Sunday, April 5, 2009. North Korea fired a rocket over Japan on Sunday, defying Washington, Tokyo and others who suspect the launch was cover for a test of its long-range missile technology. The banner read " Kim Jong Il Out." (AP Photo/ Lee Jin-man)

There were massive protests in South Korea with photo burning, effigy burning, standing on Jong Il's photos that were spread out on the street, signs that said 'Jong Il out'. Well, in my estimation, Jong Il is out, out of touch with reality, and perhaps out of his mind. Despite the fact that the missile ended up somewhere on the Pacific ocean floor, Jong Il declared that the launch had brought the country closer to conquering outer space.

This is not the first time that the world has seen delusional, dangerous leaders. We had to deal with some of these in our own country. Didn't George Bush talk about Venus exploration at a time when the climate on the home front , in Afghanistan and Iraq were  dismal? Clearly this was in 2004 with the Iraq war only a short year in age. The billions/trillions had not started pouring out, and the casualty figures were low, and al-Qaeda had not yet made its debut on the Iraq stage.

Japan has already indicated that North Korea's launch was extremely provocative and that it violated U.N. Security Council resolutions. If we are dealing with a delusional man, how can we even bring resolutions into this discussion? This is one of these high value targets we always hear about that should be taken out. This guy makes the Taliban look like Cinderella; he has nuclear capabilities; he doesn't like to be ignored; he conducts dangerous exercises to call attention to himself, - while the US was busy waterboarding innocent victims.

At one of the demonstrations, there was a South Korean man holding up a placard that read: 'no more sanctions'. Clearly why aren't we more concerned about North Korea than Iran, for instance? I think it is high time that we reversed our stunted foreign policy of the last eight years, but we cannot ignore the most dangerous element in the world at the moment. We do not have a 'reset' button for North Korea where we can evaporate Kim Jong Il, or prevent him from continuing to play charades.

So they had an emergency session of the Security Council and resolved nothing.

A few hours before Obama was about to deliver his speech on nuclear proliferation at the NATO summit, Pyonyang forcefully invited itself to come to the forum with the United States. So now, the signal is that North Korea has not discounted denuclearization and is playing for time; it wants the economic sanctions lifted, but it's launching a missile any second now. The French press indicated that the missile launch, albeit a failure, may have served to let the world know that Jong Il is not at death's door. 

It's time to talk to North Korea.

For more info: 

Envoys meeting at State Department on North Korea

North Korea kidnaps U.S. journalists in renewed provocation

North Korea called for talks with DMZ UN forces