Is Dennis Rodman Our Only Hope? Keeping Friends In North Korea

One thing runs through my mind when I read this article in the Atlantic, entitled Can China Stop North Korea?

China is also North Korea’s only ally and, according to the Council on Foreign Relations, provides 90 percent of North Korea’s energy imports, 80 percent of its consumer goods, and 45 percent of its food. If China suddenly decided to cut ties to its mercurial neighbor, North Korea would almost certainly collapse.

The dangerous path North Korea is on is only underscored by one sentence here: China is North Korea’s only ally.

[pullquote width=”300″ float=”left”]China is North Korea’s only ally.[/pullquote]

Without an other alliances, and minus other world powers having opportunity to speak perspective into a situation, North Korea takes the road of the unhealthiest, island-ed individual.

Add a leader with a God-complex and citizens who will follow him like a deity? Check out the video below entitled, Until I Escaped I Could Die For Them, and all the sudden relationships seem vital for health–not only for the sanity of North Korea but also for the safety (and peace of mind) for the rest of us.

What do you think? Would we be better equipped to deal with this scenario had we managed to hold onto some straggling relationship with Kim Jong Un?

And by we, I mean the we beyond sensational ex-basketball star Dennis Rodman pictured in the above cartoon by Daryl Cagle. Though let’s face it, if Rodman is the only one who has Kim Jong Un’s ear, then he has more than most world leaders.

Rodman, who is planning a return trip to see “friend” Kim Jong Un, has suggested president Barack Obama should give Kim Jong-un a call. “He loves basketball, Obama loves basketball. Let’s start there.”

What about it? Does ‘keep your friends close and your enemies closer’ apply here? Or do strategies that might make sense in person-to-person interactions not apply to world-scale ones?