Kenneth Bae: North Korea sentences American to 15 years' hard labour

[homasse]

Kenneth Bae: North Korea sentences American to 15 years' hard labour
Regime may be hoping to bargain with US over tourist who was arrested in November 2012 for alleged crimes against state

A North Korean court has sentenced the US citizen Kenneth Bae to 15 years, hard labour after finding him guilty of unspecified crimes against the state in a

Comments

[the_physicist]

Obviously the accusations and 'evidence' is bs. I think NK's leader is bonkers and I don't know that there is any logic behind the games he plays. I hope the USA can get him out of there some how, because that is essentially a death sentence if it comes to it.

[homasse]

Right now, Kim Jong-un seems more interested in consolidating his own power inside N. Korea than diplomacy. When you look at it that way, the things he's doing make slightly more sense. I think it's disingenuous to just write him off as "bonkers." Everything he,s doing, it's to make his position in N. Korea stronger against the top military brass who might try to stage a coup or wrest control from him. He doesn't really give a flying fig about countries outside N. Korea right now, this his ignoring even China.

[the_physicist]

i know. to consolidate his power he apparently had some of his generals executed in a rather over the top way. he doesn't want to lose power. i still think he's bonkers though. a powerful man who is scared to lose that power and willing to do desperate things to stay in power because he thinks that's the most important thing rather than the lives of so many others. yeah. that to me is very much not the mind of someone who is rational.

[homasse]

"Over the top" is a bit of an understatement. He had the man mortared until there was literally nothing left. "Bonkers" is not the same as completely ruthless. Kim Jong-il died waaaay before preparations were ready for a power handoff and there's still a power vacuum in N. Korea right now. Given the irrationalness of N. Korea in general? This behavior is, while a bit more unfocused than normal, NOT all that out of nowhere.

It seems a lot more unfocused than just blanket irrational - there are too many parallels with past N. Korean actions.