Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un could have swapped their New Year messages given the jingoistic content of both.
But even Kim’s message couldn’t compete with Trump’s when it came to crude self-promotion.
The “supreme leader” of North Korea said his “spectacular success” in 2017 was the launch of “a super-powerful thermo-nuclear weapon together with the tests of various type nukes delivery”.
He then invoked the need to protect the North’s boundaries: “We should further bolster up the military capabilities for self-defence.”
Kim topped this with a message to Trump “The United States can never fight a war against me and our state. It should properly know that the whole territory of the US is within the range of our nuclear strike and a nuclear button is always on the desk of my office and this is just a reality‚ not a threat.”
The president of the United States rose to the challenge with an ominous “We’ll see”.
Trump’s been brewing for a war all year. Any war. North Korea seems on the cards but in case that doesn’t take off‚ Trump has stirred things up in the Middle East.
In his self-congratulatory New Year video of his greatest achievements in 2017 was his declaration on 6 December that he recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. This is despite the majority in the United Nations condemning his move.
Al Jazeera reported on Monday that the Palestinian Liberation Organisation is recalling its envoy to the US. Earlier the Palestinian leadership said it would now not accept any peace plan put forward by the US.
Trump‚ like Kim‚ loves things military‚ particularly hardware – choppers‚ jets‚ nuclear weapons‚ men in uniforms stepping out. Both invoke national security and self-defence. And both believe they have absolute rights and absolute power.
Kim then turned to economic development – but he didn’t list any achievements in 2017. Rather‚ he set out his plans for 2018‚ based on self-reliance and socialism.
“The main task for socialist economic construction this year is to put the national economy on a firmer independent and Juche [self-reliance] basis and improve the standard of the people's living‚” he stated in his New Year message.
What a wish list! It included the electricity sector‚ the iron and steel sector‚ the chemical sector‚ agriculture and fisheries‚ coal and ore production‚ railway transport‚ improvements to machinery and light industry‚ water‚ housing‚ tourism and‚ of course‚ the military – all aimed at self-reliance and “it is necessary to develop the socialist culture on an overall scale”.
Trump‚ on the other hand‚ listed his great economic achievements – created jobs (but statistics vary and‚ warns The Guardian‚ underlying structural problems remain) and tax cuts - but in reality these favour the rich.
On foreign policy‚ Trump’s message skipped over his riding roughshod over Palestine and the rest of the world; his brushes with Britain’s Theresa May; his nationalistic speech in Poland; his rants about Islamic terror; the West under threat; Russia and vote tampering in his 2016 election; and his barefaced rivalry with China. But he did give voice to his America first policy (“We are MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN‚” said his new year tweet) and then he’ll think about the rest of the world.
Kim said there should be good neighbourliness - with South Korea‚ in particular in light of the Olympics there – and “strive to build a just and peaceful new world” with other countries as long as the North’s sovereignty was respected. But then there’s nuclear to take care of that.
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