Kim Jong-un is like an annoying child with a new toy. Except in this instance, his new toy is no ordinary train set, Lego blocks or bicycle. It has the potential to unleash thermo-nuclear destruction on a scale that would make the two atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki look like a veritable picnic.
What’s even scarier now is that the man who is supposed to be the rational voice of sober-second thought, the Commander-in-Chief with the nuclear codes at his fingertips acts like a child too, throwing all of his toys out of a pram. So here we are now left to wonder just what will happen on the Korean peninsula as Kim is intent on setting his portion north of the DeMilitarised Zone (DMZ) on the path to possession of a nuclear weapon. And at the same time, the Boy Wonder has also ordered every technical expert with two atoms of education to rub together to make that bomb small enough to be able to fit on top of an intercontinental ballistic missile that can reach his nemesis in Washington. Yep, it is rocket science, as far as Kim is concerned.
So how did we get to this point? As the G20 leaders meet now in Hamburg, Item 1 on the agenda is making sure all of the leaders are there this time tomorrow, that Kim, or the other megalomaniac, has launched the missiles and set us all on a path of fiery nuclear and molecular destruction.
If United States President Donald Trump is to be believed — if he says it, it must be true, right? — the US is considering “some very severe things” as he called on other nations to exert pressure on Pyongyang for its “very bad behaviour”.
Why does it suddenly seem as if the language in use now in this critical juncture in history seems like it’s straight from a Grade 1 class for misbehaving brats who ought to be writing lines on a blackboard for being bold boys for missing school. The Supreme Leader in Pyongyang and the “Dear Leader” in Washington make for a right pair — and the rest of us may sadly and very well be the ones to suffer if the South Asian schoolyard antics turn into a scuffle of any sort. Across the DMZ, there are 10,000 long-range heavy artillery pieces aimed at Seoul, and Kim will be itching to see how quickly they can fire off their salvoes if there’s as much as a hint of a cruise missile heading his way.
Kim is a man who knows no bounds — and has no one to step in his way. His uncle tried that three years ago, and ended up at the wrong end of an anti-aircraft gun live-fire exercise. Another was fed to the dogs. And even his half-brother, Kim Jong-nam, who was more used to the insides of a Macao casino than a cabinet portfolio, was eradicated in a very messy public execution, using some half-witted Malaysian women who daubed him with nerve agents for a few dollars each as reward for playing their part in an airport murder.
Little is still known about the elusive young man who is the youngest son of Kim Jong-il and his late third wife Ko Yong-hui. Born in 1983 or early 1984, he was initially not thought to be in the frame to take up his father’s mantle.
Analysts focused their attention on his half-brother Kim Jong-nam and older full brother Kim Jong-chol. However Kim Jong-nam’s deportation from Japan in May 2001 and middle brother Kim Jong-chol’s apparent “unmanliness” improved his chances.
‘Morning Star King’
Analysts saw him as the coming man after he was awarded a series of high-profile political posts.
Swiss-educated, like his brothers, Kim Jong-un avoided western influences, returning home when not in school and dining out with the North Korean ambassador. After his return to Pyongyang, he is known to have attended the Kim Il-sung Military University.
His mother was thought to be Kim Jong-il’s favourite wife, and she clearly doted on her son, reportedly calling him the “Morning Star King”.
Heck, if Kim soon fulfils his nuclear ambitions, we all could be morning stars if someone presses that launch button!
But we are well surprised that it all has now come down to this — the test launches of new missiles that travel further has been deliberate and provocative. Talk about poking the hornets’ nest — on July 4, the day every American is sitting down to apple pie, all things Star-spangled Banner and fireworks for Independence Day, Kim fires off a new class of intercontinental ballistic missile, one that can reach Alaska, and mouths off a series of expletives at the Yankees.
Not much was known of Kim’s personal life until television footage of an unidentified woman attending events with him surfaced. In July 2012, state media announced that Kim was married to “Comrade Ri Sol-ju”.
Little is know of Ri, but her stylish appearance — short, chic haircut and western dress — led some analysts to suggest that she was from an upper-class family and that she fits Kim’s efforts to project a more relaxed image compared to his predecessors.
Details surrounding the marriage of Kim to Ri remain unclear. Most reports had suggested that Ri may have been a singer who caught Kim’s attention during a performance. Aside from attending official events, the couple’s public appearances have included visits to an amusement park and watching a concert featuring Disney characters.
American basketball star Dennis Rodman, who met Kim in 2013 and 2014, told the Guardian newspaper that Kim had a daughter.
Meanwhile, since April 2012, Kim’s technicians have set off nuclear tests and fired missiles to the growing concern of all in the region, and thumbing their noses at new sanctions and United Nations Security Council resolutions. And since Trump’s arrival at the Oval Office, the rhetoric has simply been turned up to dangerously scary levels.
Here’s one solution: Rodman also starred in two seasons of Donald Trump: The Celebrity Apprentice. Maybe he can talk sense into both before this gets really, really serious.
— With inputs from Guardian News & Media Ltd and the BBC
