The West should bomb North Korea

Kim Jong Un may not need food but his
countrymen certainly do

No, not with High Explosives or nuclear warheads but with parcels of food and clothing  and simple leaflets proclaiming from whence they came and why.

The population of North Korea is in a dire state. Poverty, starvation and ignorance of the outside world are at the heart of their troubles coupled with a totalitarian system where son informs against father and daughter against mother.

Where executions are carried out routinely with the least cause and where gulag style prison camps proliferate, some being some 30 by 20 miles in size.

Small cities of misery, the fruit of communist ideology.

As Catholics we believe that, when faced with a foe, we should observe the following actions:-

….if thy enemy be hungry, give him to eat: if he thirst, give him to drink.

For, doing this thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head.

Romans 12.20

What would be the consequences?

Kim Jong Un might press the red button, possibly. But then, he might do that anyway.

He seems to be a fairly psychotic sort of a bloke. Not the type of chap you could enjoy a pint of Rev James with down the pub for fear that he would run amok among the peanuts and porky scratchings.

But that initiative (the food drop, that is) might just be the start of the tipping point that could topple his evil regime.

How can the world stand by (especially in the light of the various conflicts we have become embroiled in over the past 20 years) and do nothing to aid the poor, afflicted North Koreans?

At least if we bombarded them with kindness no one could accuse us of sabre rattling.

And if the drop was made by an aid organisation rather than a specific country, the regime in North Koreamight find it harder to respond violently.

Clothe the poor and feed the hungry: not a bad maxim under the circumstances and much, much cheaper than a nuclear warhead.