North Korea - the Terrified Chihuahua

Imagine a country where the leadership looks around and sees its starving population as a good thing.  A country where people are still imprisoned for something their father, grandfather and great-grandfather did many years ago.  Imagine a country terrified, afraid, and desperately trying to act bigger than they are; pretending not to be afraid of the world around them.  This is North Korea.

In such a country you are not going to receive sanity, common sense or adult behavior.  However you will receive fear and terror on the most basic level.  Everything they do, everything they say is based on a place of fear.  And because they frame the world as a place of terror and fear their options are severely limited.  With the current president in the process of dying, and the concern around who will be the next life president growing, North Korea will dig deeper into its hole, and growl louder. 

So the question arises, what to do with North Korea?  First, you need to go to a place of understanding.  Again, think of the Chihuahua. One solution is to pay no attention to it.  Allow it to make noise and pretend is bigger then it really is.  The problem with this approach is half the time it will make the Chihuahua calm down, and the other half the Chihuahua will grow more bold, making a bigger nuisance of himself. 

Another solution is to bop it on its nose so it will understand where the lines are.  If it crosses the lines it will get bopped on its nose.  The key to this response is consistency.  Just like teaching rules to a three-year-old child.  The rules need to have boundaries and punishment needs to be consistent. 

It is important to remember that 90% of North Korea's actions are out of its own internal fears and struggles.  It is looking for a feeling of safety.  Again think of the Chihuahua, it shows the world it’s teeth, shivering with fear inside and longing for safety.  Longing to know where the lines are.  Longing to know when to stop. Longing to feel safety in a world much bigger and powerful than itself.