North Korea - the disobedient and misbehaving child of international community

North Korea and its notorious and cruel leader Kim Jong-il tends to pop up every once in a while, usually when NK is throwing a fit or having a tantrum as the Washington Post so eloquently put it. While I watch the show, I can't help but think about the psychology behind the North Korean behaviour. Or how the game theory, especially behavioural game theory, is a useful and applicable tool in appreciating what is happening in this international show. Or how this setting reminds me of a disobedient and misbehaving child trying to manipulate his or her parents.

This is how the son of a gun behind all this looks like. And of course his father was similar in all aspects and raised his son to have a serious character flaw of which we all now get to enjoy. Not.

As I don't have enough information on the objectives and interests of the important players I won't even try to do an analysis of the situation game-theory style. I'll just list some thoughts on the subject.

North Korea is a poor country and its economy is in shambles. It can only manage with food aid from foreign countries and even so its people go malnourished and starved - the ruling class excluded, naturally. At this time China is its main food supplier due to the fact that South Korea finally understood the foolishness of giving massive amounts of free food aid to North Korea to no avail. North Korea's conduct has usually been like the disobedient and ungrateful child - after it gets its way it reneges on its promises and is never grateful for received free help but demands more. It's like a child stamping his/her foot to the ground and making never-ending and unreasonable demands.

For a surprisingly long time it has gotten away with it, but it can't continue indefinitely. As long as the parents - the international community - is divided it easily gets its way. As a cunning child tries to drive a wedge between his/her parents and thrives when the parents don't have a unified front and a unified voice, the same way North Korea manipulates the international community wiggling and squirming any which way it can. China still seems to adamantly back the mad emperor, but it will be interesting to see if Obama can manage a successful approach. In many a fight Obama has proved in my eyes to be a master strategist with great knowledge of human psychology and I wouldn't be surprised if he could manage to pull it off. He may need another term for it even though North Korea might crumble in just a few years. I believe Obama is the greatest president the US and A has had for several decades and I hope he might get even this North Korean problem at least on the right track if not solve it.

These two photos show well who is doing the starving and suffering in North Korea. In the first picture you see a North Korean mother and the other picture portrays the fat cat himself...





Back to the psychology. It is intriguing how well and analogously these two entities of a disobedient and manipulative child and a misbehaving and manipulative country - or its regime - compare. Even though the country is a much much larger entity, it can be seen to act as an individual entity much like the child. The way this country acts and tries to milk every possible benefit is very much like the child. In this case the child has been given his/her weekly allowances despite not keeping his/her side of the bargains made. Perhaps now is the time the parents finally wake up and take notice.

In all this, most surprised I am of China's attitude. Even though China has been fairly recently humiliated as North Korea in the nuclear debacle took action contrary to China's public suggestions and later North Korea has been caught red-handed in the sinking of Cheonan, the South Korean warship, still China seems supportive of the mad emperor. The most obvious reason stated for China's attitude is the fear of massive stream of fugitives from North Korea to China if North Korea was to fall. However, I find this hard to believe. I believe it wouldn't be a total catastrophe for China if it was to take care of 10-20 million North Koreans. Maybe it's more probably the fear of a nuclear capable government succumbing to total chaos if the government and communist system was to totally unravel in North Korea? And maybe even the communist pride not wanting to see a communist fellow country falling apart? And maybe North Korea is a convenient little buffer between China and the US forces in South Korea? Who knows? Anyway, it will be interesting to watch what happens in the near future...

Read more of the situation here: www.northkoreanrefugees.com