Geopolitical chaos procreating a chaotic leaderless world is sucking the literal life out of human hope. The tentacles of austerity measures and quantitative easing are the primary catalyst of all the madness. One way or another every government financier around the world is determined to cultivate the appearance that the good times are still rolling. The only problem is that the natural rate of failure refuses to participate in the economic facade. Fiat currencies’ purchasing power dwindles, the pounding drum beat of war beckons, and an open ended hegemonic polarity struggle for commodities ensues.

While serving as a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System in 2002, current U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke gave the world a glimpse into the past, present, and future all at once. In his speech, entitled “Deflation: Making Sure ‘It’ Doesn’t Happen Here,” Ben Bernanke stated:

“Although a policy of intervening to affect the exchange value of the dollar is nowhere on the horizon today, it’s worth noting that there have been times when exchange rate policy has been an effective weapon against deflation. A striking example from U.S. history is Franklin Roosevelt’s 40 percent devaluation of the dollar against gold in 1933-34, enforced by a program of gold purchases and domestic money creation.”

Today the infamous 40 percent strikes again, as Cyprus agreed to the terms of a European Union bailout in which banks will seize 40 percent of uninsured bank depositors’ wealth.

Moody’s Investors Service was quoted in Bloomberg as saying, “The seizure of larger deposits may spark tensions with Russia, the source of an estimated $31 billion in holdings in Cypriot banks.”

Proxy wars have gone beyond the spectrum of arming rogue militants and allied nations in dispersed pockets of the globe, graduating to the realm of state sponsored economic terrorism. As “Gerald Celente” consistently and aptly states, “Currency wars + Trade Wars = Real Wars.”

All of the economic wheeling and dealing continues on as the “Arab Spring” explodes into a caballing year round inferno engulfing the entire Middle East. Daily at the United Nations, permanent Security Council members China, Russia, France, United Kingdom, and the United States spar over regional influence with each passing veto and resolution.

This is most apparent in Syria where Russia opposes any intervention as it struggles to prop up the government of its last remaining ally in the Mediterranean region. Russian naval forces stationed at Tartus, Syria may be the last line of repellent preventing NATO intervention.

The lines of frienemy engagement get blurrier with every passing engagement.

Simultaneously as the United States prepares to implement its own austerity measure policy that has carefully been repackaged and marketed to the public under the label sequestration, it is arming rebels in Syria. All claims of being in financial dire straits gets immediately lost within the noise of controlling key choke points around the globe.

One cannot forget less than two years after watching the Al Qaeda flag being proudly raised in the Libyan city of Benghazi, that America’s new found ally the Free Syrian Army are the protégés of Al Qaeda.

The life cycle of keyboards do not possess the durability to correctly and fully analyze threats posed by the uncontrollable Kim Jong Un ruled North Korea. The isolated peninsula nation even managed to startle its longtime ally China into voting in favor of U.N. Security Council resolution 2094. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang was quoted as saying;

“China supports the UN Security Council’s necessary and moderate response to the nuclear test of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).”

Barely beyond two weeks later newly appointed Chinese President Xi Jinping, warned the West not to meddle in Syria’s civil war while on his first visit to Russia.

Not even the mythical country of Chimerica can rescue the too big to fail world from the natural rate of failure. Governments around the world are taking sides now under the cloak of every global economic and geopolitical conflict, because nations know that a hegemonic storm is coming with no evacuation routes or shelter in sight. Once more, honesty of time is proving that which cannot last forever won’t.

Image courtesy: European Parliament

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In March, North Korea announced that it was ready to launch an observation satellite into space between April 12 and 16, when the country celebrates the 100^th anniversary of the birth of its founder, Kim Il Sung. Representatives from the U.S., Japan, South Korea and even China, which is said to be in a perfect diplomatic relationship with Pyongyang, tried to restrain these plans.

The main reason they pointed out was the fact that the actions of the North Korean officials are in dissent with U.N. resolutions. Besides, the country formally declared last year that it would not take part in nuclear activities which would put people in danger.

Despite all warning, North Koreans continue to insist that their project is for scientific purposes, whose major task is to improve the economic situation of the country.  The general manager of the launch facility, Jang Myong Jin, said: “Our country has the right and also the obligation to develop satellites and launching vehicles. No matter what others say, we are doing this for peaceful purposes.” However, the world still wonders whether these are the only intentions of Pyongyang.

The misgivings of Japan and South Korea grew into the taking of precursory defensive measures. They both made known that they would start actions against the rocket if necessary.  In reply to these operations in the Asian countries, North Korea assured that the trajectory of the satellite would be southwards, and that it would not put its neighbor in danger. Apart from this, Pyongyang didn’t hide its intention to “punish” every country which tries to thwart its plans.

The plans are meant to show to the world that despite the hardships around the tragic death of their leader, Kim Jong Il, North Koreans are still a strong nation. The country is ready to turn a new page and start writing the new history of their country under the patronage of Kim Jong Un. “North Korea needs to show some tangible achievements to its people to solidify Kim Jong Un’s leadership,”  declared Koh Yu Hwan, a professor at Seoul’s Donnguk Univerity.

The preparations around the launch of the satellite worked according to plan. The first two satellites, built on the launch pad, were experimental, but according to the engineers working on the project, the third one will be brought into use as soon as possible.

On April 8, journalists were officially allowed to see the rocket for the first time, which turned to be the apple of discord between the Asian country and the world leaders. The media representatives, who gathered in Tongchang-ri, North Korea, had the opportunity to examine from close up the Unha-3 rocket, which is said to fly off into space later this month. Meanwhile, Washington promised to provide Pyongyang with provisions if necessary, on the condition that it will keep nuclear activities idle.

The satellite itself has to send back images, which will be used for projects involving the exploration of the natural resources of the Asian country, as well as for weather forecasting. And yet, there are still fears that this is the next North Korean plan directed against its southern neighbor and the U.S.

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Last Friday, North Korea announced that it will launch a long range rocket attached to a satellite between April 12 and 16 to celebrate the 100th birthday of the regime’s founding leader, Kim Il-Sung.

Pyongyang’s announcement sparked widespread criticism from the world. The US, Japan, and Britain among others have advised the regime to cancel the launch. According to AFP, this plan was announced 16 days after North Korea agreed to suspend long-range missile tests in exchange for food aid from the US.

Hillary Clinton referred to the rocket launch as “highly provocative” saying that: “Such a missile launch would pose a threat to regional security and would also be inconsistent with North Korea’s recent undertaking to refrain from long-range missile launches.” South Korea also criticized the announcement as a “grave provocation.”

AFP also reported that a Unha-3 rocket will be launching the Kwangmyongsong-3, a home-built polar-orbiting earth observation satellite towards the south from a new location at Tongchang-ri on the northwestern side of the country. Foreign observers and journalists have been invited to attend the launch. ”The peaceful development and use of space is a universally recognized legitimate right of a sovereign state” the North’s state KCNA news agency said.

Some experts say that this missile test is projected to enhance the standing of the North’s new young leader, while others say it is to threaten “regional security to leverage concessions, from the United States in particular.”

“The launch will take place. Nobody is really going to do anything, because there’s nothing you can do. It’s not like China is going support more sanctions at the U.N. It really puts the US in an awkward position; whichever way it breaks out for the North, they can spin this as a win for Kim Jong-un and the regime.” — Daniel Pinkston, an expert on North Korea with the International Crisis Group in Seoul

In April 2009, North Korea led a similar missile launch, which was viewed by the west as “a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions prohibiting North Korea from engaging in nuclear and ballistic missile activity,” and consequently resulted in more U.N. censorship. According to Al Jazeera, that launch failed, as its first stage fell into the Japanese sea without a satellite orbiting. A similar example is the 1998 launch.

“The launch reflects the North’s desire to take the upper hand in negotiations with Washington and extract more concessions” Kim Yong-Hyun, a professor at Seoul’s Dongguk University said.

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Amid growing deficits of food supplies in North Korea, which is under new leadership, the country recently elected for a new and surprising turn of diplomacy toward the United States. As previously reported by Toonari Post, the North Korean leaders has agreed to halt nuclear enrichment and missile tests in exchange for food.

According to the agreement, which was finalized in Beijing, North Korea will suspend nuclear weapons tests, enrichment of uranium, missile launches, and allow inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency to inspect Yongbyon nuclear reactor.

This rebirth of diplomacy between the United States and North Korea took place at a time when North Korea has been under the tight grip of dwindling food supplies. North Korea is evidently attempting to mend the nation’s food supply gaps with this nuclear deal. In return, the otherwise closed and secretive country will receive 240,000 tons of food supplies, an agreement that was in the pipeline since the last days of their late “Dear Leader”.

There had been a long standing promise that the year 2012 would mark the dawn of a new era and prosperity, according to reports by British paper The Guardian.

Admiral Robert Willard Commander of the US Pacific Fleet told the senate committee soon after North Korean announcement its diplomatic intentions that preconditions for food assistance “now include discussions of cessation of nuclearisation and ballistic missile testing and the allowance of IAEA perhaps back into Yongbyon [reactor].”

The most eligible aspect of this agreement is that North Korea has agreed to allow inspectors from IAEA inside their borders, after years of resistance where inspectors were expelled, negotiations around the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 2003 was abandoned and nuclear devices tested in 2006 and 2009.

Over the last decade, diplomatic relations especially with the US were badly affected due to rigid behavior and continued arrogance over development of nuclear weapons, perhaps leading to the food crisis that blew out of proportion when the nation’s economic isolation intensified.

Bijaya Rajbhandari, UNICEF’s representative in North Korea, said in a statement a few months back, “If the funding does not arrive, and we are unable to keep our nutrition program to treat those children who are severely malnourished, these children will suffer irreversible consequences on their growth and development capacity.”

UNICEF’s spokesman, Chris Tidey, have told Reuters that “one in five children in North Korea under the age of five suffers from moderate malnutrition, which can cause stunting and also hamper their cognitive development.” The North Korean food crisis multiplied at its current speed due to the turnaround in policy by South Korea and the US, which ended the food supplies to North Korea in 2008.

Newly enthroned Kim Jong-un seems to have taken a step forward in fulfilling the promise of prosperity and dawn of a new era in North Korea, keeping aside political and diplomatic arrogance for now.

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North Korea has recently struck a deal with the United States to denuclearize their state in exchange for food. The deal was decided and agreed upon in Beijing last week but made public only yesterday.

Under its terms, North Korea will halt uranium enrichment and long-range missile tests and also let overseers screen the state’s main Yongbyon nuclear complex. Not all nuclear devices have been deactivated, however, as the short-range No Dong missiles that pose a threat and hazard to South Korea and Japan were not incorporated into the deal.

Also under this agreement, the US will give North Korea 240,000 tonnes of food to a drained population. Many analysts have speculated that this food is primarily to help ease the diplomatic relations between the two countries, and have said that the food is the least significant part of the deal. North Korea, however, has recently experienced the most frigid winter it has dealt with in 65 years which resulted in a depletion of much of the country’s food supply, and the food comes as a great relief to the nation.

The deal comes as a step towards reconciliation between North Korea and the US. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, however, understated the agreement’s power and meaning, calling it a “modest first step.” She went on to say that Washington still has apprehensions towards North Korea, especially when considering its past actions.

The agreement had been in the works for a while, before last year being put to a grinding halt by Kim Jong-Il’s death. And just two months into his successors reign, the deal has already been deemed acceptable by North Korea.

Some political analysts, like Narushige Michishita, an associate professor at Tokyo’s National Graduate Institute of Policy Studies who has been watching North Korea for some time now, think this deal will give Obama a strategic edge in the coming election. The uranium enrichment program would have created the fuel required for one to two nuclear warheads each year if not kept under a close eye. The breakthrough definitely gives Obama the upper hand when it comes to foreign policy, and may perhaps prove to be what clinches this next election.

North Korea’s plutonium program, originally supposed to be ended with the uranium program, was not included in North Korea’s announcement earlier. Though there is thought to be enough to make a handful of warheads, it is of less importance than the uranium program.

Many consider the deal a bigger step than the last one from 1999. As of this time, though, just where this deal will lead North Korea, and Obama, remains unclear.

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After the death of North Korean dictator Kim Jung-Il, many nations in the world zero in on the move of the next leader, young Kim Jung-Eun. Some expect he might go for an open diplomacy since the young leader spent his adolescent in Switzerland, and also taking into account his age.

Countless assumptions and speculative research for North Korea’s upcoming policies and diplomatic tactics are currently up in the air in an attempt to predict how the young dictator will step into his father’s footsteps. From the most recent reports, he might be planning something drastic to position himself as a powerful young man.

According to Yonhap News Agency Korea, North Korea is in the midst of developing unmanned attack aircrafts using U.S. target drones purchased from the Middle East, a military source in Seoul said Sunday, indicating that the aircrafts will likely target the South. ”North Korea recently bought several U.S. MQM-107D Streakers from a Middle Eastern nation that appears to be Syria, and is developing unmanned attack aircraft based on them,” the source said on condition of anonymity.

The jet-powered Streakers can fly at up to 925 km/h with a fuselage 5.5 meters long and a wingspan of three meters. They are used by Egypt, Iran and Jordan, as well as Sweden, Turkey, Australia, and Taiwan. South Korea has also used them to test anti-aircraft missiles and conduct missile target training.

North Korea has conducted numerous tests on high-speed target drones mounted with high explosives, but has yet to develop a new weapon, said the source to Yonhap. If it succeeds in developing the attack aircraft, the North is likely to deploy them near the tense maritime border with the South on the Yellow Sea.

The maritime border, also known as Yun-Pyung Island, was the scene of North Korea’s provocation which left four South Koreans dead in  November, 2010. At the moment, the reason for developing unmanned attack aircraft remains unknown, yet it gives a glimpse of the young dictator’s priorities; He cares more about nourishing new weapons than his people who suffer from starvation.

Some nations, include South Korea, have been getting their hopes up in respect to the new era of Kim Jung-Eun. Many were hopeful that he might choose a different path for the future of North Korea, one that would be a little more amiable towards South Korea and other liberal nations. In light of this, the news about attack aircraft cannot be any more disappointing and shocking.

At least finally the North’s mysterious foreign policy is starting to unveil. Time will tell if the North Korean government will remain on its isolated, hostile path or if bigger ambitions have emerged following Kim Jung-Eun’s inauguration which could mean a greater threat to the surrounding world.

No matter what, the young dictator needs to realize that a nation unable to care for its population is essentially powerless. True power comes from the people’s strength; not from the cold weapon.

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North Korea has made the decision to embalm its departed leader, Kim Jong Il. After all, he did proclaim that he was an “eternal ruler,” like his father. “Great leader Kim Jong Il will be preserved to look the same as when he was alive,” KCNA, the North Korea’s official news agency, announced on January 12.

Officials will also hang smiling portraits of him and put up ‘towers to his immortality’ around the country. His birthday, which falls on February 16, is to be commemorated as ‘the greatest auspicious holiday of the nation’ and named the Day of the Lodestar. The long-range rockets that North Korea started testing in the year 1998 also coincidentally share that same name.

There has been speculation for weeks over whether Kim Jong Il’s body would be embalmed like that of his father, Kim Il Sung. It took almost one year to preserve the elder Kim in Moscow, which purportedly cost the secretive nation $1 million. Some debated whether North Korea would be able to afford preserving his body, which might also explain the reports that the North Koreans might be the ones to do the embalming, instead of sending him to Moscow’s world-famous lab.

They will have to be very careful if they are going to cut costs and do it themselves. Mao Zedong’s body was filled with 22 liters of formaldehyde by Chinese undertakers during the mid-seventies and reportedly began leaking a little over 20 years later.

Kim Jong Il’s body will be put on permanent display inside a glass coffin at the Kumsusan Memorial Palace. The palace was erected in 1976 and was the official residence of Kim Jong Il’s father, who is North Korea’s first (and eternal) president and the founder of the nation. He passed away in 1994, which prompted his son to spend the exorbitant amount of around $100 million to convert Kumsusan into a mausoleum.

Unsurprisingly, the inside of the structure is quite eerie. The visitors of the mausoleum travel around the building on moving walkways, listening to narrations of mourning, and gaze at the bronze statues of sorrowful, grieving people. They also travel through a machine that blows dust at them. At the end of this morbid tour, they are brought to Kim Il Sung’s body, which lies in a glass sarcophagus.

As of now, it has not been determined if Kim Jong Il will be put to rest next to his father or if he will get to lie at the end of his own separate walkway. Either way, many North Koreans will be sure to visit and continue to mourn his passing.

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North Koreans laid Kim Jong-il to rest on Wednesday, December 28. According to the New York Times, the coffin of the late leader sat on the rooftop of a mid-1970s armored black Lincoln Continental. Kim Jong-un, the dynastic heir, walked alongside the Cadillac. According to Radio Pyongyang, two million mourners lined up the streets for this elaborate funeral.

Agence France Presse quoted Yang Moo-Jin of Seoul’s University of North Korean Studies, when he said, “The grief for Kim Il-sung was genuine, with many people expressing real sorrow. The mood this time appears to be slightly different”.

As the funeral progressed, Mr. Kim’s two elder sons, Kim Jong-nam and Kim Jong-chol, were out of sight. Neither have been pictured mourning his father’s death, nor were they a part of the official funeral committee. This absence raises suspicion about the kind of relationship the sons had with their late father. However, several military generals and party secretaries were present. The most well known figures were Ri Yong-ho, vice marshal in charge of North Korean military’s general staff, and Jang Song-taek, Kim Jong-un’s uncle and vice chairman of the powerful National Defense Commission.

Lee Dong-bok, a senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said, “Kim Jong-il died a little ahead of schedule; things weren’t ready for the smooth relay of power. The young man isn’t prepared to take control by himself. He needs help.”

Today, the 29-year-old Kim Jong-un is left with a title that took his father 20 years to prepare for, while he had merely three. Despite having exalted titles such as full general, he has little experience compared to what his father had in 1994, when his grandfather, Kim Il-sung died. Experts believe that the success of Kim Jong-un will depend on the guidance of his uncle, Jang Song-taek, and his wife, Kim Kyong-hui, the sister of the late Kim Jong-il.

CBS News reports that Kim Jong-il’s heartfelt presence is felt in every building, where his portraits hang and his visits to factories are commemorated with signs in his honor. Kim Jong Il’s funeral lasted for three hours and followed the same protocol set in 1994 with the death of his father. The late leader was laid to rest in an underground mausoleum.

Indeed, the late leader’s death marks an end of an era for North Korea, which has only known two leaders, Mr. Kim and his father, North Korea’s founder, Kim Il-sung. Today, a new era has already begun with the leadership of Mr. Kim’s youngest son, Kim Jong-un.

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The North Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) reported the “Dear Leader” Kim Jong-Il died on Saturday December 17 due to physical and mental overwork.

The 69-year-old North Korean Leader was on a train on his way to a “field guidance tour” to farms, factories and to the army when he suffered a heart attack that has been fatal to him. A distraught black dressed broadcaster announced his death and said that despite he was treated with “every possible first-aid measure” he couldn’t be saved.

The KCNA reported North Koreans were “writhing in pain”  for their leader’s death and the Chinese state television showed people’s tearful reaction to the news in the city of Pyongyang.

Kim Jong-Il had come to power in 1994, when his father, Kim Il-Sung, died struck down by a heart attack at the age of 82, and he ruled the country for 17 years. In 1974, he had been officially named his father’s heir and since the 80’s the Korean government, ruled by the elder Kim, began building a personality cult around him and he was acclaimed as “the great successor to the revolutionary cause”.

Under his long rule, North Korea was closed off to outside influences and led through a devastating famine that contributed to the death of millions of people and for which he also sought international aid. The country has been termed as a totalitarian Stalinist dictatorship by several outside organizations, including Freedom House and Amnesty International, and it has also been described as one of the lowest-ranking human rights records of any country in the world. According to Human Rights Watch, the country’s government under Kim Jong-Il was “among the world’s most repressive governments” and North Koreans are “some of the world’s most brutalized people” given that civil liberties and fundamental rights are not guaranteed and strongly restricted. Defectors also reported about tortures, deportation to internment and concentration camps, executions, forced labour, rapes, murders, starvation, and forced abortions and prostitution.

However, it is very hard to have a clear and complete picture of the country’s  actual situation because the North Korean government strictly controls the access of foreigners, the media, and the people’s lives and relations.

Kim Jong-Il’s funeral will be held on December 28, but the national mourning period will last until December 29. The KNCN said he will buried next to his father Kim Il-Sung, the “Eternal President”.

Kim Jong-un, the third and youngest son of Kim Jong-Il who started his carreer as Daejang – the equivalent of four-star general – , has been designed as the Great Successor” by the KCNA, which lauded him as “the outstanding leader of our party, army and people”.

The agency also said the country and the people “must faithfully revere respectable comrade Kim Jong-un. At the leadership of comrade Kim Jong-un, we have to change sadness to strength and courage and overcome today’s difficulties” and find comfort in the “absolute surety that the leadership of Comrade Kim Jong-un will lead and succeed the great task of revolutionary enterprise”.

Kim Jong-un, unlike his father who had 20 years as official heir, became successor by taking on official titles only last year and doesn’t have any political experience. He takes over a heavy inheritance and it has to be seen whether and how he will be able to manage being the leader of the most isolated country of the world. Meanwhile, many countries concern about the future steps of the new North Korea’s leader.

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