TokyoIf you are certain you have a clear
picture of North Korea, you will be challenged by the photos on this
page. I took two photos of a North Korean school (K-12) here in
Tokyo. Did you know that such a place existed?
There are roughly 15,000 North Koreans and their children living here. The school has images of Kim Jong-Il in a sacred place at the front of every classroom, patriotic songs are sung in class every day and history is taught from the same texts that are used in North Korea.
A ferry goes from Japan to North Korea twice a week, as do large remittances to home.
The Japanese, I talk to, think of North Korea as having an emperor, Kim Jong-Il who is revered and treated in the same sacred manner as their own emperor was sixty years ago.
In the geopolitical world of this area,
China is the great suzerain that everyone has dealt with for 2,000
years. China still has the same view of the world she has held for
two millenia; China is the center. Tyrants, war lords and emperors
are the norm for China. China has little conception and no
experience with either democracy or the free market. What few ideas
China has are negative.
Consequently, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea are disrespectful and fairly incomprehensible entities near her borders. Only North Korea is an ally and a comprehensible neighbor. A “puppet” state from China's vantage point.
Nuclear weapons are an unfamiliar novelty too. China, unlike Japan treats nukes as just another powerful weapon. So when China's puppet state talks about testing a nuclear weapon it is hard for China to put that prospect in the same perspective as its democratic -free market neighbors. It is further more difficult for China to understand why the U.S. would attack North Korea for having and testing such a weapon.
The Japanese see this problem very clearly. They have North Koreans living freely among them.
The situation is very dangerous. China needs to be made to understand that North Korea will be attacked by the U.S. immediately after testing a nuclear weapon, possibly with American nukes and certainly with Japanese concurrence. The U.S. may give the UN Security Council one week to completely isolate and punish North Korea, but few security people in Japan think the U.S would waste more than a week before responding.
That is where things stand today.