Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Financial Times editorial on North Korea brinkmanship

The Financial Times, still basking in the victory of declaring South Korea a neo-colonial power hell-bent on abusing the African continent, has penned an editorial likening North Korea to a temper tantrum-throwing child and the US, South Korea, and Japan inefficacious parents (hmm... I guess that's one of the pitfalls of having two mommies).

It's really a sort of pointless piece, saying nothing new and only taking potshots at the "Western" players (i.e., Washington, Tokyo, and Seoul), who frankly have been dealt a really crappy hand.
Tokyo, rather unconvincingly, is letting it be known it is considering shooting down the test missile. But, unless the rocket is heading directly for Japanese soil, that would be a mistake. To shoot it from the sky could send Pyongyang into a paroxysm of rage, downing any chance of a negotiated settlement for years. Worse still, Japan might miss. That would reveal the fallibility of missile defence technology and risk emboldening North Korea to try more acts of bravado.
"Unconvincingly," eh? 

It's easy to criticize, FT, but coming up with a solution, that's where we determine if you have any talent or not.

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