At this moment, a small satellite-transmitter is circling the planet, broadcasting 'immortal revolutionary paeans' to Kim Jong-Il and his father. At least, that's what the North Korean government tells us.

If the 'hermit kingdom's' many critics are right, that the world's last bastion of socialist totalitarianism will collapse any day now, all I can say is that I will miss the zany formulations that the Kims have given us.

For entertainment value, one can hardly beat the Kim family dynasty which has given its people the 'loving care' of their 'fatherly leaders'.

But then that's easy for me to say. I don't actually have to live in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The country is so isolated from the world that nobody is quite sure just how bad conditions in the country are.

But reports are pretty dire, and famine is a recurrent problem. Meanwhile, the country's increasingly scarce resources are ploughed into monuments to the glory of the Kims, and the development of a nuclear capability to rival that of its enemies.

North Korea has developed a basic nuclear device. Next on its list is a rocket that can deliver such a bomb to neighbouring Japan or South Korea, or even the United States of America. The country's claim to have sent a satellite into space doesn't mean that North Korea can now bomb Los Angeles. But it would mean that it's moving closer to that goal.

The Americans, South Koreans and Japanese are telling us that no such satellite exists. Allegedly launched by a rocket over the weekend, observers outside of Korea suggest that the missile fell into the sea and no part of it made it into orbit. It's not that anyone worries that praise-songs for 'Li'l Kim' (as the diminutive leader - given to wearing high heels - is known) will transform the global balance of power. But if all stages of the rocket fell into the sea, that would mean North Korea is still years away from building an inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM).

Febrile strategy

Regardless, Pyongyang will undoubtedly press ahead with its plans. It doesn't appear to be scheming to invade Japan, or even its southern rival, for that matter. Rather, Kim appears to have another strategy in mind.

Cut adrift by the collapse of Soviet socialism, he seems to have decided to try and carve out a niche for his febrile state as a sort of modern-day Barbary pirate.

Kim probably won't invade anybody. But by threatening those who pass by, he can demand a little tribute from them. Provided his enemies keep making him concessions, and sending him resources, he will hold off bombing their cities. But to make that threat real, he must press ahead with the development of the technology to do just that.

That may be while, officially, North Korea's enemies recorded their anger, the Japanese and South Korean stock markets yawned it off. This is all becoming rather routine. 'What does he want now?', they probably asked.

With Saddam Hussein gone, and the US and Iran making eye contact on the dance floor, there's little left of George W. Bush's 'axis of evil' (not that there likely ever was). North Korea is now more like a mosquito under netting: enough of a nuisance to make you switch on the light and find it, but not enough to keep you up all night.

Still, mosquitoes get attention if they might carry dengue. So it goes for tyrants with nuclear bombs. As a development strategy, Kim's pursuit of nuclear and ballistic technology will probably bleed his people. But as a survival mechanism, it may buy his febrile regime yet more time.

John Rapley is president of the Caribbean Policy Research Institute (CaPRI), an independent research think-tank affiliated to the University of the West Indies, Mona. Feedback may be sent to columns@gleanerjm.com.