Augusta Chronicle Editorial Staff
Forget the threat to stability in Asia or the violence it does to world relations.
The North Korean obsession with its missile and nuclear ambitions is simply immoral.
The nutty, reclusive dear leader, Kim Jong Il, wants to be a 21st-century space power -- or some version of SPECTRE, the fictional organization that fought against world order and James Bond in the movies -- before he's even able to feed his people or light the countryside with electricity.
North Korea is the land that time forgot. One of the biggest prisons on Earth, it is largely sheltered from all outside influences. North Koreans can be imprisoned for as little offense as singing songs that aren't patriotic. (Not singing unpatriotic songs -- just any song that isn't about the virtues of the country or its leader.)
Millions are believed to have starved in North Korea in the past few decades -- millions! -- as the world periodically feels compelled to send handouts of food and fuel to the belligerent, ungrateful regime.
Kim Jong Il wants a guided missile when he and his country are just misguided.
The United Nations tied itself into a knot trying to whip up a strongly worded memo to North Korea about the missile test (which appears to have fizzled). Is it a security threat? Should we condemn it? Will we make them mad if we do?
Yes to all that. But the bigger issue may be the sheer immorality of spending untold millions on dud missiles while people go hungry.
