And indeed, perhaps they have manipulated NK to become just the threat that they need. Scary enough, but not very dangerous. Except to SK and Japan. And to China, which may in fact be the primary target.
The issue with NK, as with virtually all international issues as regards our country, is the zeal those who run the country have for global military empire - US(NATO) global hegemony. China (understandably) does not want, and will not allow US troops to mass on their border. As long as South Korea remains a client state of the US(NATO) with tens of thousands of US troops, multiple bases, missiles, bombers, ships, and anti-missile batteries stationed there, the Chinese will do everything in their power to support the survival of North Korean regime as a buffer, no matter how insane or dangerous NK is described as being (or actually is). For the Chinese, it is far more dangerous to have US(NATO) forces, that(unlike North Korea) have proven their willingness to invade and topple governments resistant to their policy of global hegemony.
The simple truth is that we decimated Korea, a country on the other side of the world, with horrific bombings, an invasion and subsequent occupation that has lasted for over half a century (and which continues to this very day). The bifurcation of the Koreas was (and remains) the direct result of our military adventures. Our "ally" South Korea was a military dictatorship until well into the 1980s. Unfortunately not 1 in 100 Americans could find Korea on a map, let alone describe the history of our involvement there. Consequently, its very easy to paint the North Koreans as some sort of unhinged bunch of lunatics that simply "hate us for our freedoms" rather than for atrocities we actually committed. This lack of understanding and ignorance of history is what allows the "bipartisan" war party of Democrats and Republicans in Congress to paint opponents of war and advocates of peace as "Russian propagandists".
We stand on the edge of what could very well be a civilization-ending war (in more than one place) while most Americans nod dully, with glazed over eyes, uncritically accepting government propaganda as gospel. In the not-so-recent past I was chided by the owner of HN for quoting Goebbels to describe the tactics of our government and the ignorance of our people, but silence is complicity. The North Korea situation (like the "Russia conspiracy") once again demands its recitation:
Why, of course, the people don’t want war. Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece. Naturally, the common people don’t want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship…
Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.
Indeed, nations define and sustain themselves through their enemies. And, to perhaps belabor the point, that serves all nations in conflict. Or at least, it serves their ruling elites. Who are fundamentally all kleptocrats.
There's a sequence in Takashi Miike's "Izo" that's very reminiscent of that Goebbels quote: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKG6eOSwSa4 Izo was a samurai/assassin who was crucified in 1865, and the film is an extended (and extremely bloody) meditation on social manipulation.
