What a difference a night makes. I go away to spend time with the spouse, and then it gets interesting in “North Korea”.

According to a source that may have contacts in North Korea, n unprecedented crowd has taken to the Kim Sung Il Square to protest, carrying anti-Chinese and anti- South Korea signs.

(…)

NKI is reporting that Kim Jong Un has reached out to American pop star Britney Spears with a proposal of marriage.

Poor Britney, she never had a chance to experience Pyongyang! But then, Kim lost his job, and a three-person junta seized power, eliminated the Kim clan, and took the military off alert. Negotiations resume…same old. But, like Egypt, North Korea has slid one lateral move from quasi-monarchical to bureaucratic-military autocracy. In another development, Beijing let it be known it preferred that the US and other countries deliver aid directly to North Korea, not via the Sino-DPRK border.

Fascinating! A nuclear accident fails to lead to military confrontation, and the fall of the Kim regime brings slim political reform, followed by improved relations between the US and North Korea, fostered by China. Even as we wait for what’s happening to Egypt, this “Egyptian” model – or is it the “Russia 1991 model”? – seems like the flavor of the month. Patterson seems to situate North Korea on a timeline even farther back in political development than Egypt. Beijing’s role in the region is also secure, not replacing the US, but influencing events indirectly.

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Filed under: Academia, East Asia, Korea, Social Science, USA Tagged: britney spears, china, kim jong un, north korea, patterson school of diplomacy, simulation