New Review: Rogue State by William C. Triplett II
Posted by Mark Radulich on 01.24.2006
“Rogue State” clearly lays out all of the threats stemming from the Korean Peninsula.
Have you ever wondered what would happen if the mob owned their own country? Obviously, this would be a country run strictly on guns, drugs, and sex. The only law and order would be the one that best serves the bosses' needs. A country run by a mob boss would most likely not be inclined to cooperate with international agreements. In fact, said country would be doing everything possible to undermine world security, if for no other reason than to provide a venue for their guns, drugs, and sex.
Friends, such a place exists and its name is North Korea.
When authors take on the subject of North Korea, they tend to center their themes on its nuclear weapons capabilities, factual or otherwise. Former chief Republican counsel to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and bestselling author William C. Triplett II, however, has written more than just the obligatory warning of nuclear Armageddon stemming from the Korean peninsula. He has written a short history of the connection between Communist China and North Korea that has enabled Kim Jong Il to become a greater terrorist than Osama bin Laden.
The book is called, "Rogue State: How a Nuclear North Korea Threatens America," but it really is much more than a collection of warnings stemming from N. Korea's potential nuclear arsenal. Triplett takes at least a third of the book to illuminate the many historical events that have gotten us to a point in history where a criminal regime on a small peninsula in Asia can threaten world security with the push of a button.
N. Korea would not be causing the trouble it is today, had it not been for Stalin's Soviet Union and Mao's Red China. What is truly fascinating about the history being presented here is that, had Stalin believed the U.S. incapable of defending itself or S. Korea, we would be living in a very different world today. Furthermore, in that alternate universe, N. Korea would be the least of our problems.
Triplett informs the reader that N. Korea receives much of its funding from China, even today, in order to stay afloat. However, that money isn't enough to sustain the country's needs (militarily or otherwise) and the funds are decreasing year after year as China moves from communism to market capitalism with a fascist bend. N. Korea now finds itself in a quandary. How can it continue to support its military, which is the linchpin holding what's left of that country together? The answer is drugs.
According to Triplett, N. Korean diplomats began abusing their diplomatic immunity in the 1970s by smuggling drugs into their host countries, such as Sweden. It started out as a way to fund these diplomatic missions without taking from either the military or Il family treasury. Despite these ambassadors being caught and expelled on several occasions, N. Korea's participation in the drug game only expanded.
Over time, N. Korea became one of the main sources for heroin and methamphetamines to Japan, Russia, South Korea, China, and Taiwan. In addition, not only are the young people of Asia getting high on Kim Jong Il's drugs, but so are the 80,000 American troops stationed in Japan and South Korea. Though the primary goal is to make money in order to continue subsidizing a regime that steadily starves its civilians, an ancillary goal is to drug enough people in order to allow for N. Korea to eventually invade its Asian neighbors without much resistance. Triplett notes that China is also complicit in what appears to be state sanctioned drug trafficking.
N. Korea has also been training terrorists. As a matter of fact, Triplett tells the reader that the University of Political and Military Education in N. Korea is actually the prime terrorist and spy school for that country. In one to three years, an enterprising Korean can learn how to use explosives to blow up civilian targets, marine navigation, use of wireless radios, engine repair, spying on enemy nations, assassinations, sabotage, and kidnapping. I have to be honest here; I didn't learn anything nearly as cool when I was getting my Masters in Social Work.
Of course, there is a downside to learning how to kidnap and kill innocent people. Aside from forcibly being stripped of your worldly possessions and identity, you will also have to memorize the following phrase, "Let us become complete revolutionaries determined to blow ourselves up and commit suicide for the sake of our great leader and our fatherland!" That's not exactly "Seize the day," is it?
Not only is Kim Jong Il training his own people to terrorize Japan and South Korea, but he also training Arabs/Muslims in the same fashion. Students receiving training at the aforementioned university came from Syria, Iran, Iraq, Libya, and Palestine. Triplett quotes one defector as saying, "North Korea is the boss of the terrorist world."
With help first from the old Soviet Union, and to this day, the Communist regime in China, North Korea has a world-class program for developing biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons. As we speak, N. Korea is desperately trying to pack these weapons on their collection of ballistic missiles. It has been said that some of their missiles can hit the West Coast of the U.S. With cover from their benefactors in Beijing, the Il regime not only builds up their own armaments, but also proliferates them across the globe. In fact, as Triplett points out, the design for Iran's ballistic missiles, the ones that threaten Israel, were directly taken from North Korea's own blueprints.
"Rogue State" clearly lays out all of the threats stemming from the Korean Peninsula. It also makes very clear just how much Beijing is enabling this threat to go on existing. Triplett makes some very sober suggestions on how to deal with this combined threat of both a nuclear N. Korea and a greater, nuclear China. He does not suggest war, though that is a distinct possibility. He states what many others have agreed is the best solution: if there is to be an end to N. Korea's rogue behavior it must come through China, and China only.
"Rogue State," is a fine book chock full of information that I believe the average American citizen should be aware of. If you have any inclination toward learning about the threats posed to us throughout the world, you should begin with "Rogue State" by William C. Triplett II.
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