North Korea warns U.S. it's ready
to use nuclear weapons 'any time' - CNN
North Korea Says It Has Restarted
Its Main Nuclear-Bomb Plant - The Wall Street Journal
North Korea's Nuclear Gambit -
The Wall Street Journal
North Korea's renewed nuclear
threat keeps experts guessing - The Guardian
North Korea says main nuclear
complex operational; warns U.S. - Reuters
North Korea to restart nuclear
reactor - AFP (on The Australian)
Does North Korea have nuclear
capabilities? - BBC News
North Korea Confirms Restarting
of Nuclear Center - Voice of America
US warns North Korea against
restarting nuclear facilities - AFP (on Asia Times)
North Korea admits nuclear
reactors restarted, tells US it is "fully ready" - The Sydney Morning
Herald
How to stop worrying and embrace
a nuclear North Korea - The Guardian
North Korea Says Principal Nuclear
Complicated Operational; Warns US - Times
US urges North Korea to avoid
'irresponsible provocations' over nuclear program - AFP (on The Economic Times)
These headlines once again
confirm the ferocity of 'the baby-face, tenderly chubby, Dennis Rodman loving
‘hermit’, who also orders entire families to be killed, entire communities to be
starved to death.'
These headlines from the global
news outfits once again reaffirm steely might of Kim Jong-un, the young though
oversized ruler of the 'hermit kingdom', North Korea.
Kim Jong-Un tells the world he is
still there, and in style.
For past few months, in fact for
more than a year, Kim had remained subdued - out of public's eyes - but he was
consolidating his position. Those North Korea watchers know it. After all, a visionary
like Kim Jong-Un, though plump sized, covers even the finer details of his
empire's various symbolisms. In this case, probably, he was trying to live the
'hermetic' spirit of his 'hermit kingdom'.
In his carefree ways, he was not
bothered at all, in fact, he basked in the glory of the global media burning
its midnight oil over analytic reports on his 'disappearance' from public life.
There were reports on a possible coup, reports on his sister taking over,
reports on Kim being dragged down by some serious health problem, reports of
powerful North Korean generals successfully hatching a plot against him.
Loads were written on each of
them - thousands of words literally flew - from one part of the world to the
other - and Kim enjoyed each of them - with his 'maintained' silence. After
all, his 'professional' mind believes that any publicity is worth 'going for' -
no matter what it takes.
And what could be better than
this that the global media powerhouses, which are seen as the gold standard for
any communication material, day in and day out discuss him - for any reason -
even after his 'mysterious' public disappearance for some days.
We may call it propaganda but Kim
Jong-Un (and even his predecessors, the two other 'Kims' of the Kim nation) has
a well-oiled communication system.
South Korea is a regular
element in its routine packages. And
whenever Kim feels to go global, like he did during the 'Sony Hack' saga or
when he decided to execute his uncle Jang Song Thaek by machine gun firing
squad after his 'wisdom' told him that his uncle was in fact a 'despicable
human scum, worse than a dog'.
Or like this renewed nuclear
threat!
This is one of the 'tried and
tested' North Korean publicity (one is free to read it as propaganda) tool to
pull global attention and the Third Kim is getting mastery over it - incident after
incident we have seen so.
So, even if the world had
intelligence input for two years that North Korea was restarting its Yongbyon nuclear
facility, when Kim finally said so, and openly, it made for global headlines. Obviously,
he doesn't speak his mind directly. There is a well laid and expansive system
for it - the Korean Central News Agency. And Kim has followed his predecessors
in ensuring that the 'mighty provocative line of words' is followed without
fail - even if it means firing KCNA staff and anchors by missile death squads
to discipline them.
The latest round, as well, goes
to the 'shrewd ways' of Kim Jong-Un. Since this 'artfully packed message' came
out, North Korea, Kim Jong-Un and North Korea's nuclear capability are all
around in news analyses and reports.
And what validates it is a
response by North Korea's arch-enemy, the United States of America. Kim had
again made Barack Obama's America to react to North Korean 'designs' in less
than a year.
After all, running an empire is
not an easy task, especially when it is by a single family that is there for 70
years. And the Third Kim is efficiently taking that 'legacy' forward, in style
- though, the world may debate its 'substance'.