North Korea is overstepping a lot of boundaries these days, to put it mildly. Although an unpaid parking ticket doesn’t compare to testing hydrogen bombs in the Pacific, $156,000 in unpaid parking tickets is a serious lapse. A long list of news agencies, including fortune.com, have reported that North Korea owes New York City a pile of cash for tickets that were issued as far back as the 1990s.
They’re not the only ones risking the wrath of New York parking enforcement.
Russia reportedly owes over $104,000, Iran has run up $185,000 in fees and Syria has nearly $363,000 in unpaid tickets. If you include the North Korea parking ticket bill, that’s nearly $1 million in unpaid fines.
North Korean officials deny the accusation, but didn’t call anybody a poopyhead, jerkwad or wingnut. They say tickets are paid when they are incurred and that North Korean diplomats in the United States are aware that their parking privileges can be withdrawn if they have more than 3 unpaid tickets. Maybe there’s another reason they haven’t paid – maybe they have other plans for us?
It’s another example of the way perspective drives behavior. Parking enforcement officials in New York City say North Korean diplomats owe them $156,000; the North Korean diplomats say it’s a mistake. North Korea believes it is entitled to arm itself and has the right to test its combination fusion-type nuclear weapon and a ballistic missile; the United States thinks there are enough nuclear devices in the world and that further testing is a dangerous to all mankind. President Donald Trump thinks Kim Jong Un is a reckless “rocket man”; and Kim Jong Un thinks President Trump is a “mentally deranged U.S. dotard.”
Lots of perspectives, lots of deflection – and nobody’s getting anywhere good.
Read the article here.
