COMMENT Is that a long-range missile in your pocket or are you just pleased to see me? If sketchy intelligence reports are true, Kim Jong-il is preparing quite a welcome for President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, US secretary of state, who will shortly tour the region. The Stalinist state’s Dear Leader is apparently planning to test a missile capable of hitting the west coast of America, though past attempts indicate that Alaskans can, for the moment, sleep safe in their beds.
It would not be the first time that Pyongyang’s quixotic dictatorship tried to make itself heard through military pyrotechnics: in October 2006 it tested a nuclear bomb. Then, as now, its objective was to grab Washington’s attention and parlay that into food, money and diplomatic concessions.
