Watching over this development is China. It has been making the futile effort to maintain the status quo, which is about to end. It will definitely try to control "the day after." The way it has been handling N. Korean problem does not exactly inspire confidence. It will try again to have it all by itself, pusing things too far. It will make a bigger mess, which bite it in the ass. It will consume too much of Chinese attention and resources in the end. The result is that it will overextend itself. China has outstanding domestic problems and potential clashes with many of its neighbors. The center won't hold if it is too obsessed with N. Korea. It is not the first time it happened to China. They had this problem in the past.
P!
Very little happens in NK without the PRC’s approval.
I could possibly be cheered by this story, if it weren’t for the fact that Bill Keller hasn’t a shred of integrity or credibility.
Mike
China likely has its agents and supporters spread throughout DPRK’s Army. When TSHTF, China will attempt to organize them into a Government.
Much will happen behind the scenes. What we will likely see from the distant vantage point in the West is announcement of a coup and a quick, bloody purge of the Kim regime.
” It will try again to have it all by itself, pusing things too far. It will make a bigger mess, which bite it in the ass. It will consume too much of Chinese attention and resources in the end. The result is that it will overextend itself. “
Let’s hope so.
China has a lot of experience with this. Their methods have been effective historically. Kill anyone who causes any problems.
NK will not become democratic any time soon, it will go to Chinese rule. The people of NK are so brainwashed and undereducated there is no way they could maintain a free government on their own. It’s sad to say, but Chinese rule is actually their best option until a generation can be raised up that can think for themselves.
I just can’t take Keller seriously here.
His words remind me of other leftists who proudly celebrated the fall of the Berlin Wall, as if they had been stalwart anti-Communists all along, when the truth is that they had wholeheartedly supported the East German regime and all of its Socialist atrocities up to the very moment when it all collapsed, in the belief that the German Democratic Republic was superior in every way to the “corrupt” American system and Western values that they despised (and still do).
If the totalitarian, collectivist goals and actions that Keller has fervently championed ever triumph over traditional American ideals and freedoms, North Korea will serve as a good model of what will result.
Not unlike what Keller's NYT advocates for every. Damn. Day.
I don't like the New York Times, but I love the way they write. When they're on, they're on....
Yes, that is the bottom line. It's like being locked up in a room with a guy holding a grenade, and you have a gun. Kill him and you both die. China would have to somehow get around or co-opt the Kim personality cult there before imposing its will on NK.