America’s Dennis The Menace Meets Pyongyang’s Pillsbury Dough Boy
by LT. COLONEL JAMES G. ZUMWALT, USMC (RET)March 12, 2013
As irrational, theatrical and nonsensical as North Korea's leadership has shown itself to be over the years, if anyone could connect on that level, former rogue NBA star player Dennis Rodman-known to display a menacing flare on the court-was that person. But in the aftermath of Rodman's visit, Pyongyang wasted no time in again displaying its menacing flare as a rogue player within the international community. Issuing a nuclear threat against the U.S., its leadership made clear 21st century basketball diplomacy with North Korea is not 20th century ping pong diplomacy with China. Despite Rodman and Pyongyang's newest generational dictator, Kim Jung Un, looking like best friends forever, no new doors into the "Hermit Kingdom's" inner sanctum were opening.
Dennis Rodman was no more qualified as a self-appointed good will ambassador than Dennis the Menace. The White House emphasized it had its own direct line of communication to Pyongyang, adding, "instead of spending money on celebrity sporting events to entertain the elites of that country, the North Korean regime should focus on the well-being of its own people who have been starved, imprisoned and denied their human rights."
It was obvious why Rodman wanted to go to North Korea. No longer able to promote his image on the basketball court, he needed a new stage. A trip to the North was ideal to promote his "oddball reality-TV character" image for an upcoming HBO newsmagazine special.
Less obvious is why North Korea would want Rodman to come, apart from its dictator's infatuation for basketball. Why invite international ridicule by opening its doors to Rodman? Surely, it was not seen as bestowing credibility upon Kim Jong Un-Pyongyang's real life version of the Pillsbury Dough Boy. (It is a travesty as each generation of Kims has packed on the pounds, the size of succeeding generations of North Koreans has been reduced-the impact of repeated famines with the average army conscript now standing under five feet tall.) It was a bizarre act by a nation claiming the U.S. its "sworn enemy."
Bizarre is normal for the North. Responsible for famines that have killed millions of its people, it worries about the South's larger population. North Korean families are pressured to have six children, despite the country's inability to feed the existing population.
Unfortunately, Rodman's self-promotion effort blinded him to the brutal realities of North Korea's leadership. Upon meeting Kim Jong Un, Rodman bowed, undoubtedly giving the twenty-something strongman a measure of satisfaction those outside his kingdom recognize him as royalty. In later interviews, Rodman called him "awesome" and claimed he was "loved" by his people.
Had Rodman bothered to take off his sunglasses, he would have seen it was fear-not love-in their eyes. It is fear instilled even at the highest levels by the current leader as demonstrated by his execution of one senior North Korean official who failed to demonstrate sufficient sorrow at the funeral of Kim's father in 2011. In the only successful family succession of power in a communist state, such fear has succeeded in placing three generations of Kims atop the throne.
Rodman probably failed to notice too the lack of diversity among North Koreans. A country not known for immigration, its ethnic minorities are negligible. To the educated observer, this speaks volumes.
It is doubtful Rodman inquired about forced labor camps-estimated to hold 250,000 North Koreans for crimes great and small. Falling into the latter are those who simply allowed dust to collect on their leaders' photographs. Just like the leadership has been family generational, so too are the prisoners as sons suffer the sins of their fathers and grandfathers. These camps are visible in satellite photographs, encompassing an area larger than the city of Los Angeles.
While Rodman visited Pyongyang, satellite photographs revealed construction, started in 2005, still ongoing at Camp 14, to increase its size by 20 kilometers. Interestingly, the expanded perimeter also encloses a village along with its non-prisoner population. No effort is being made to distinguish between the two, suggesting it simply does not matter. New guard towers face the non-prison population. Camp 14 is notorious as a "no exit" prison-i.e., prisoners never leave alive. The incorporation of the local village into the camp may be to punish residents for the escape of the only known prisoner who made his way to freedom in the South.
On March 7th, in response to U.S. efforts to seek additional UN sanctions against the North for its most recent nuclear test and for pending joint military training drills with Seoul, Pyongyang threatened to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike, engulfing Washington in a "sea of fire." As if the North ever needed an excuse for belligerence, even before the U.S. initiated the UN effort, Pyongyang posted an animated youtube video of a nuke hitting Manhattan. Although the UN sanctions were drafted by both the U.S. and China, the North excluded Beijing from its threat.
Despite Pyongyang's lengthy track record of unprovoked aggression, the U.S. and South Korea have repeatedly exercised "strategic patience," mostly due to China and Russia blocking effective UN action against it. Such a policy has only encouraged Pyongyang's aggression. Possessing a nuclear weapon, Kim Jong Un acts like an immature child with a loaded gun, trying to impress his military. The U.S. needs to emphasize to him Pyongyang's next act of aggression will result in the targeting of its leadership in a retaliatory strike.
Rodman's comments during his recent trip to North Korea raises serious questions about a liberal American education system. But with the Rodman embarrassment barely behind us, filmmaker Michael Moore now announces he wants to go to Iran. Another sad product of America's education system, Moore, by visiting Iran, will demonstrate no understanding about another brutal regime devoid of a conscience for the sanctity of human life.
Such self-appointed international good will ambassadors must be causing our Founding Fathers to turn over in their graves.
Lt. Colonel James G. Zumwalt, USMC (Ret.), is a retired Marine infantry officer who served in the Vietnam war, the U.S. invasion of Panama and the first Gulf war. He is the author of "Bare Feet, Iron Will--Stories from the Other Side of Vietnam's Battlefields," "Living the Juche Lie: North Korea's Kim Dynasty" and "Doomsday: Iran--The Clock is Ticking." He frequently writes on foreign policy and defense issues.
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