Opinion: DPRK/North Korea: a New Israel

I think that the DPRK (North Korean) regime is being, as usual, very smart. What they are preparing for is a strong, nuclear, independent self-governing, self-directing state, knowing they can always rely on China, no matter what. In this way the intelligence at work is much the same as that of Israel knowing that whatever they do they will be protected by the USA. The support for Israel within the USA is always constant and significant; and always significantly military.
In China, especially the great North of it, the support for North Korea is equally passionate and China will not do anything that threatens not only the DPRK but also the loyalties of hundreds of millions of Northern Chinese who, through kin blood and trade, are very tightly linked with the DPRK.

As a Northern Han man said to me on a train leaving Shen Yang last year: The DPRK is the most inhuman government in the world, but they are our blood brothers. I wish them well. They have our support. We all have relatives who died fighting in Korea to get rid of the Americans last time. Even Mao's son died at their hands, yet the Americans did not win. No one in their right mind would go to war with North Korea.

He was a retired PLA colonel. His brother was killed by the Americans in Korea. I told him I was trying to learn the thai language. He said 'Don't bother with the small languages. Thailand is not a country, it is a border town. China is Asia.' That night we sang in a karaoke bar. He sang a PLA war-ballad with great sentiment, love and sincerity: "After all the suffering, I would still borrow from the god another 500 years."