North Korea tests rockets

North Korean watchers in Washington and Seoul exhibit uninterested concern in the DPRK's testing of short range missiles. They dismiss it without much fanfare when before they would be ringing the tocsin that Pyongyang might very well be preparing a rain of terror something not short of Nazi V-2 rockets falling on London.

Why this display of unconcern when hardly 10 days ago Washington and Seoul were banging pots and pans of warning that the rise of Kim Jong eun was a prescription for regional instability and possibly war?

These nervous nellies have come to the conclusion that, one, the transition to power has gone on without a hitch; two, there is hardly cause for crying wolf since the only ones who through the sky was falling were the US and its ally and client South Korea; and three, short range rockets do not make for a war now.

Of course, context is missing, for, unlike US media, we, the audience, do not hear the other side of the argument. It may come as a surprise that North Korea is a leader in advanced rocketry. In the past, even America's 'trusted' ally the Egyptian military upon whom us$3 billion in taxpayer contribution is lavished on it, has bought advanced DPRK rockets. How could this happen without the knowledge, if not the tacit consent of Washington?

Nonetheless, we do hear that Pyongyang has sold rockets to another 'axis of evil' state Iran. GuamDiary has no need to flesh out the fodder that this accusation feeds the propaganda mills.

An interesting question comes up: if North Korea is consolidating gains inside the country a month after the death of Kim Jong il, why aren't Washington and Seoul coming up with a policy which nurtures a new direction in North Korean affairs?

On another front in the propaganda war, North Korean refugees in South Korea are floating rumours that the North is ferreting out and punishing North Koreans who showed insincerity in their display of sorrow for the passing of Kim Jong il. Looking at the footage shown worldwide on television, how can you discern in a sea of tearful mourners the real mourners from the false?