North Korea beat back American Hegemony

A good example of how much “propaganda” we’re fed is on North Korea. We all know it to be the Hermit Kingdom, a starving nuclear-armed AoE (Axis of Evil) statelet on the far corner of the world.

But what has increasingly dawned me is that just how long-lasting the North Korean state actually is. It’s been existince since 1945 and in its current borders since 1953, having successfully survived the Cold War.

It’s a very useful Chinese ally in what is an otherwise dominated US Ocean.

The Sea of Japan, the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea have strong US allies flanking it (Japan, South Korea and Taiwan). This speaks nothing towards the South China Sea, which is anchored quite amusingly by the crazily divided Spratly islands, which is divided by 6 countries.

Going back to the original point of my newsletter; there is simply no way a dominant China, with an average growth rate of 9% since 1990 and the largest global economy (by PPP) since 2016, would allow communist North Korea to collapse and capitalise.

The problem or advantage is that all of Russia’s “mistakes” are now being learnt by China, which is a more powerful, longer term and historic entity. The Chinese state is the oldest continuous political entity in existence with a complete identity of its own and we have yet to conceive of its influence on world affairs.

North Korea is a small example of a state that runs completely contrary to all international norms but is now thriving in a Chinese-influenced world. The End of History, by Francis Fukyuma, predicted that after the end of Cold War; we would simply stumble into a Utopia dominated by Western Liberal Capitalism. American influences seems to be measured in burgers and Marvel movies, countered by Manga & noodles from the East. The Technologists in the West Coast & China will both hope that AI will somehow allow them to “win History once again.” But this slow march will be measured in the pace of centuries, not decades and History has just restarted!