If North Korea didn't exist, Hollywood would have to invent it for Steve Seagal. Last week, the world's most bizarre and
dangerous nation produced yet more weird tales from the dark side.
Japan was abuzz over reports that a long-missing young girl had actually been kidnapped on a coastal road by North Korean
agents and spirited away aboard a submarine. She was forced to give Japanese lessons to North Korean spies, and is being
kept in a mental asylum.
Adding to the `Manchurian Candidate' atmosphere, more reports surfaced of extensive brainwashing experiments conducted
on US POW's by North Koreans and Soviets during the Korean War.
Strangest of all, however, was the defection last Wednesday of Hwang Jang Yop, one of the most senior North Korean
leaders, The 72-year old Hwang was the Mikhail Suslov of North Korea - the party's chief theoretician and Stalinist high
priest. Twentieth in party hierarchy, Hwang developed the nutty ideology of `juche' which called for North Korea to be totally
self-reliant and isolated from corrupting outside influences. His wife and four children are almost certain to be thrown into
concentration camp.
North Korea also sent a message to Hwang. On Saturday, North Korean agents shot and gravely wounded a prominent
defector living in Seoul. This act of terror caused South Korea to go on partial military alert, and sent jitters throughout North
Asia.
Hwang's defection was a major blow to North Korea's mysterious leadership, whose military and civilian factions are locked
in a prolonged power struggle. The putative party boss, Kim Jong Il - lately promoted from `Dear Leader' to `Great Leader' -
apparently has not yet fully consolidated the position he inherited from his father, `Glorious Leader,' Kim Il Sung.
As flood-ravaged North Korea teeters ever closer to famine and economic meltdown, its leadership has adopted a policy of
bluff and brinkmanship to stave off collapse. In the process, North Korea's Stalinists have picked up some very curious allies.
The North's strategy is to alternate threats of war with limited political concessions. This, Pyongyang hopes, will scare the US,
Japan and South Korea into providing it with no-strings-attached oil, food and economic aid. In other words, the thuggish
northerners are saying, `if you don't feed our people and keep us in power, we will unleash a sea of fire against South Korea
and maybe even Japan.' .
The North has backed up these threats by steadily moving combat forces towards the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating
the two Koreas. Since December, Pyongyang has deployed 100 MiG fighter-bombers to hardened air bases 20-30 km north
of the DMZ. These aircraft can reach South Korea's capitol, Seoul six minutes after takeoff, and are clearly positioned for
surprise attack.
North Korea has also been beefing up its ground forces near the DMZ. Late last year, it created a new mechanized corp
tasked with striking down South Korea's east coast. New 170mm self-propelled guns have been deployed just north of the
DMZ, from where they can hit Seoul. Equally alarming, the north continues to add new AN-2 transport aircraft to its current
fleet of 300. Each of these fabric-body planes, almost invisible to radar, carry 13 commandos whose mission is to deliver
surprise, suicide assaults on South Korean and US airbases. North Korea has 88,000 - 100,000 commandos, the world's
largest special warfare corps.
South Korean intelligence reports the North has at least two plutonium nuclear weapons and is close to deploying new
Rodong-1 missiles, capable of delivering nuclear, chemical and biological warheads to South Korea, Okinawa, and western
Japan.
Much of the food aid recently delivered to North Korea by the US, South Korea, Japan and international organizations has
been diverted to the North Korean military, which continues to build vast warstocks of food, fuel and munitions. As often in
Asia, soldiers eat while peasants starve.
Curiously, the Clinton Administration loudly threatens attacks against real or imaginary nuclear or chemical targets in Libya,
Iraq and Iran, though none of these currently threaten US forces. By contrast, the Administration has desperately tried to
avoid a confrontation with North Korea by attempting to buy off Pyongyang, even to the point of delivering free oil. Each time
the North rattles sabres, or threatens to assail the 37,000 US troops in the South, Washington opens its checkbook.
Japan discreetly aids North Korea by facilitating covert trade through China. More important, Tokyo permits $100 million
annually to be channelled to North Korea by ethnic Korean gangsters who control Japan's pachinko gambling industry. Tokyo
prefers to ignore threats by North Korea to attack Japan in the event of a war on the Korean Peninsula.
South Korea is a fierce industrial competitor of Japan. Tokyo has no desire to see a united Korea of 70 million people.
Neither does China, which is equally nervous about a nuclear-armed, military powerful, united Korea on its northern flank.
Tokyo and Beijing are quite happy with the status quo.
South Korea can't decide what it wants. Passionately patriotic Koreans crave national reunification. But many quail at the
estimated $150-200 billion cost of rebuilding the north, which would bleed dry the south's already staggering economy. The
example of rebuilding East Germany, which continues to consume untold billions of marks, is pretty scary. An even bigger
nightmare is `unexpected reunification' - an immediate, total collapse of the North producing 24 million starving refugees.
So Seoul keeps sending driblets of aid northward, hoping North Korea won't implode, but somehow evolve into a kinder,
gentler place. That's, of course, provided North Korea doesn't threaten to nuke Tokyo, or unleash its huge army across the
DMZ in a desperate gamble to jump ship from sinking north.
copyright eric margolis 1997
Reprinted with Permission
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Eric Margolis
Syndicated Columnist/Foreign Affairs Analyst
The Toronto Sun
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