North Koreans are proud nationalists which defines the unique way they interact with other people. North Koreans take themselves very seriously, do not take criticisms lightly, and are easily offended. Furthermore, they trust no one. North Koreans believe that the United States is trying to "push them around"; that the U.S. has "no respect"; and that the U.S. is "trying to take over the world". The North Korean government believes that the U.S. is a terroristic country, with its own terrorist network, worldwide.

North Korea is the center of attention once again, after apparently testing a short range missile, Sunday.

On CNN, White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card said this,

"North Koreans "are living in poverty — many in concentration camps. They do not have any exercise of democracy or freedom. They are not allowed to contact the outside world. [Kim] is not the kind of leader that is comfortable with the rest of the world."

On NBC's "Meet the Press," Card portrayed North Korea as a target of U.S. efforts to inspire democracy around the world.

"We're doing everything we can to make sure that the people of North Korea recognize that they're being cheated and denied opportunities that come with freedom and democracy," he said.

Card's statements exemplify the extreme ignorance of the Bush Administration about North Koreans. Americans will never understand the reasons behind the madness that North Koreans exhibit--will never understand the nationalism that North Koreans pride themselves. The very idea of nationalism has been openly challenged by Americans for decades. But even then, Americans do not push the envelope. They question authority, but do not seek to undermine it. (With the exception of the Oklahoma City bombings and a few others and even then, these were Americans killing Americans. A tragedy which leaves many with one fundamental question: Why? Was Timothy McVeigh's "inalienable rights" being threatened? Was democracy being threatened? Will we ever know?)

To North Koreans, nationalism is their foundation of tradition; the basic principles of their family way of life. They are saying, "if you want us to work with you, you must treat us with respect, accept our way of life and leave us to run our country the way we see fit."

North Korea acts this way because its government feels threatened by extinction of its values--its people--its way of life; therefore, the government is compelled to show that it will not be pushed around by another "foreign" country.