KOREA

Very few people on the planet know more about Korea than me. Pat, pat, pat. At some point during my two years in Korea, I decided that at some time in the future, I would write a great epic novel of the country. Consequently, I researched and then I researched some more. This was before Google and Wikipedia.

My hangout spot was Uijongbu, a great little town located between Seoul and the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone), the border separating North and South. The TV show MASH give gave Uijongbu its fifteen minutes of fame. The field hospital, 4077, was located just outside Ujongbu, where Hawkeye and team did their doctoring during their fictional Korean war). I loved that show.

We need to get excited about North Korea's sword rattling because KIM JONG Il is crazy. And, how do you know someone is crazy? You can't understand them. The so called experts, diplomats, whoever can think all they want that they can apply normal logic to Kim. Forget it. Crazy!

All of Korea is a Confucian Society, which is not a religion, rather a philosophy. And, the top rung on the philosophy ladder of Confucianism is "Ruler over Subject" and this makes all the people in North Korea, relatively speaking, blindly followers of Kim as leader with absolutely no logic.

There is no easy solution to North Korea. If the madman decides to come South, we can't stop them till they've taken Seoul. South Korea is a formidable military presence but they couldn't do anything really against a surprise military attack. The U. S. would have to intervene. We'd probably have to nuke them. We will make a grave mistake if we don't have a contingency of what to do WHEN it happens.