Kim Jong Il, the Second?

North Korea has been a minor obsession of mine for some time, but I’ve paid less attention to its foreign policy than to the psychotic slave state Kim Il Sung built at home. Even so, his son Kim Jong Il seems to be acting “more recklessly”:http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iURO8fOyWVOA0ytFlaAGuC9F7R9wD98GA2784 than at any time I can recall.
So Tom Ricks sure got my attention when “he quoted”:http://ricks.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/05/27/mccreary_nokos_acting_unusually_reckless U.S. intelligence analyst “John McCreary”:http://www.afcea.org/mission/intel/NightWatchMcCreary.asp on his Foreign Policy blog:

“During the past 40 years North Korean leaders have been blustery but fundamentally risk averse. They have done nothing that would risk the total destruction of their state — which means Pyongyang for all practical and symbolic purposes — until now…. The actions in the past two days represent risk accepting behavior, defiance bordering on recklessness. This behavior began shortly after Kim Chong-il’s stroke in August 2008. If Kim is ordering these actions, he has had a personality change, which can occur if dementia follows a stroke, according to medical authorities.”