Escalation

In politics, the rubric goes something like this: "Match talk with talk, and actions with actions."

Japan, a rather short distance from Korean peninsula and therefore clearly in the gunsights of the NKM, has made a rather startling pronouncement:

TOKYO (AP) - Japan said Monday it was considering whether a pre-emptive strike on the North's missile bases would violate its constitution, signaling a hardening stance ahead of a possible U.N. Security Council vote on Tokyo's proposal for sanctions against the regime.

Japan was badly rattled by North Korea's missile tests last week and several government officials openly discussed whether the country ought to take steps to better defend itself, including setting up the legal framework to allow Tokyo to launch a pre-emptive strike against Northern missile sites.

"If we accept that there is no other option to prevent an attack -- there is the view that attacking the launch base of the guided missiles is within the constitutional right of self-defense. We need to deepen discussion," Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said.

Japan's constitution currently bars the use of military force in settling international disputes and prohibits Japan from maintaining a military for warfare. Tokyo has interpreted that to mean it can have armed troops to protect itself, allowing the existence of its 240,000-strong Self-Defense Forces.

Japan, following WWII, has been historically reticent to even write of their defense forces, much less consider their usage in world affairs. Though they contributed troops in Iraq, Japan would much rather that bit of information remain background as much as possible.

The NKM is a larger threat now on the world stage, despite his missile techno-losses, if for no other reason that Japan has made this public announcement. Literally, in a country where the standard individual is a minimum of 2 to 3 inches shorter than the area average because of nutritional deficiencies and where the nation appears to be unable to manufacture flat glass panes without bubbles or distortions, the NKM will feel forced to ramp up his rhetoric. Why? At 5'2" the NKM is actually shorter than Napoleon -- the leader credited with having the first megabout of Short Man's Complex. The NKM does wear lifts in his shoes and he will respond to Japan.

This is clearly not a tension-lessening act but serves only to escalate frayed nerves. With North Korea it is this simple: do not speak or write of an action against the country; simply do it. Words without backup will only serve to heighten tensions and force the NKM to further ill-considered actions.

Also, from the UK Timeonline:

A PROGRAMME of covert action against nuclear and missile traffic to North Korea and Iran is to be intensified after last week’s missile tests by the North Korean regime. Intelligence agencies, navies and air forces from at least 13 nations are quietly co-operating in a “secret war” against Pyongyang and Tehran.

It has so far involved interceptions of North Korean ships at sea, US agents prowling the waterfronts in Taiwan, multinational naval and air surveillance missions out of Singapore, investigators poring over the books of dubious banks in the former Portuguese colony of Macau and a fleet of planes and ships eavesdropping on the “hermit kingdom” in the waters north of Japan.

It is interesting (and most disturbing) to realize that one of the primary missiles that ended up failing 47 seconds into its test had its trajectory analyzed and, as a result, it was determined this missile would have ended up near our Hawaiian Islands chain.

BZ