Opinion Tired of North Korea By Scott T. Hards	フレームで見る  英文をプリントする  脚注をプリントする
うんざりさせられること 毎日のように繰り返される北朝鮮をめぐる報道。 これにそろそろ飽きてきたのは、 問題解決への糸口すらまだ見えないためだろうか。

I'm really tired of this whole North Korea thing. For the past six months, the news has been saturated with reports about Kim Jong Il's latest antics or the return of five Japanese abductees to their homeland. The relentless stream of bad news and overkill reporting is exhausting.

I'm tired of living next to a country that has the technology and desire to build a nuclear weapon and the missile to deliver it to where I live, but that does not have the common-sense restraint that would prevent its use.

I'm tired of hearing about a country where the leader spends over a million dollars a year on imported cognac while his people attempt to survive by eating boiled grass (and many of them fail).

I'm tired of looking at the leader of a country wearing an outfit that looks like a gas station attendant's as part of some ploy to make him seem more down-to-earth to his citizen-slaves.

I'm tired of being shown video clips of North Korean children turned into pathetic sideshow acts, singing and dancing with adult skill and horrifying, plastic smiles, as if it were some great accomplishment.

I'm tired of North Korean ships entering Japanese waters to either spy on us, unload drugs into Japan or crash into seawalls because they are so inept and spill oil, then refusing to take any responsibility.

I'm tired of the Japanese media endlessly reporting the most mundane facts about the lives of the five former abductees as they struggle to adjust. Normality can begin only when the cameras go away.

I'm tired of South Koreans with short memories who assault and harass U.S. servicemen in their country as if they were criminal invaders. Without U.S. intervention in 1950, there would not even be a South Korea today. Their attitude is an insult to the more than 50,000 Americans who died to give them their freedom.

I'm tired of the U.S. president being so obsessed with "the guy who tried to kill my dad" that he cannot focus clearly enough on the guy who is a much greater threat to world security.

I'm tired of a Japanese government that refuses to cut off all money transfers and other connections with North Korea until they abandon their nuclear program and agree to return the families of the former abductees to Japan.

I'm tired of South Korea and other governments insisting on dialogue and "engagement" with the North, despite decades of lies, deceit and broken promises. There is no "sunshine" here.

In July 2001, Newsweek magazine published a report on the "World's Worst Countries." The magazine ranked North Korea as the worst country in the world. They described it as a giant concentration camp where the entire population is forced to worship their leader. Unfortunately, it is all too accurate.

I think it's clear that the goal before the world community should not be figuring out how to deal with North Korea, but how to get rid of North Korea. The people on both ends of the Korean peninsula deserve no less.

Shukan ST: Feb. 7, 2003

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