Counterproductive

Imperial America is Kim Jong-il's indispensable ally:

North Korean media said the North would never give up its “nuclear deterrent” but instead would strengthen it because of what the media called an American plot to invade the North. Rodong Sinmun, the North’s main newspaper, said that the United States’ recent pledge to defend South Korea was tantamount to “asking for the calamitous situation of having a fire shower of nuclear retaliation all over South Korea.”

International sanctions could further isolate the already impoverished North. But the government appears to be using them to stoke anti-American anger and consolidate its power at home at a time when the North’s leader, Kim Jong-il, is seeking to bequeath his power to one of his sons, according to officials and private analysts in South Korea.

Mr. Kim, 67, reportedly had a stroke last August.

No, I don't think there's going to be an American invasion of North Korea -- surely, God-Emperor Obama's not that stupid -- although I'm sure there are many American "plots to invade North Korea," which our tech-speaking warmasters would call "contingency plans." Given our history, though, how is anyone, even the Dear Editors of Rodong Sinmun, going to sound too silly by referring to such invasion plots? I mean, name a place we haven't invaded, and it either has nukes, or we just haven't gotten around to it yet: be patient, Lower Slobbovians, your turn's coming. But an interventionist, world-managing, overbearing, condemning, sanctions-dispensing, self-parodying U.S. has to be a great boon to a little tin-plated maniac like Dear Leader Kim, as he seeks to perpetuate his misrule even after his overdue death. If our supervisors: (1) had any brains; and (2) actually wanted to hurt the NoKo regime, they'd get the U.S. armed forces out of Korea instantly, and they'd then proceed to studiously ignore North Korea: do nothing, and say nothing. But our supervisors are malevolent pinheads. So it goes.