Mick Hartley

North Korea is in the headlines, at last. We have Donald Trump to thank for that. First Syria, and then the MOAB on ISIS positions in Afghanistan. Guardian writers are getting themselves in a state over the new war-mongering president. Code Pink's Medea Benjamin, for one:

Officially called a Massive Ordinance Air Blast Bomb (MOAB), its nickname – “the mother of all bombs” – reeks of misogyny, as no mother loves bombs…..

This “mother of all bombs” and Trump’s newfound penchant for war will not help Afghan mothers, many of whom are widows struggling to take care of their families after their husbands have been killed. The $16m cost of this one explosion could have provided over 50 million meals for Afghan children.

Alternatively, with Trump’s original playbook of “America First” – a phrase which originated with isolationists and Nazi sympathizers in the 1940s – the money spent on this one bomb could have helped American moms by easing Trump’s proposed cuts in the after-school programs so critical for their children.

Trump’s trigger-happy finger is careening the world down a reckless and dangerous path, not only deepening US involvement in ongoing conflicts but threatening new ones with nuclear powers from Russia to North Korea.

Perhaps it’s time for a new resistance movement called MOAB: the Mothers of All Babies, where women come together to stop this misogynist, war-loving president from blowing up all our babies by starting World War III.

The last we heard from Benjamin, she was part of Gloria Steinem's WomenCrossDMZ two years ago, which did so much to signal the virtue of these appallingly self-important "ambassadors for peace" ease tensions between the two Koreas. 

Clearly Trump's doing something right. 

A couple of points worth bearing in mind:

These threats of nuclear war from North Korea which are suddenly making the headlines….the North Koreans are always threatening nuclear war. Turning Seoul into a sea of fire, and crushing the US imperialists with the might of the forces of Songun, are regular boasts from the official news outlets.

Talk of getting North Korea to abandon their nuclear weapons is missing the point. Kim Jong-un will never abandon his nuclear capability. It's completely woven into his propaganda; his reason for holding power. What we're really talking about is overthrowing the Kim regime. Finally.

As I said last week, the support of China is the only reason that Kim Jong-un can survive. Apart from the crucial economic help there's the matter of China sending back North Korean defectors to their grisly fate, contrary to its obligations under the UN Refugee Convention. If they eased up on that, as they're only too well aware, they could be faced with the kind of flood of refugees that put an end to the iron curtain back in 1989.

And now, with an unpredictable and belligerent Trump, the Chinese are worried. Well good.

The time is past when the North Koreans were an unquestioning brain-washed people ready to die for their leader. The army is underpaid and over-worked. The people are sullen and resentful. They know the story now. One push, and the whole house of cards could collapse.

Update: the BBC's John Sudworth "was allowed to report live" from the huge military parade in Pyongyang today, marking the 105th anniversary of the birth of Great Leader Kim Il-Sung. How nice of the North Koreans! The breathless BBC man, of course, does the regime's propaganda work for them.