ESCALATING uncertainty on the Korean peninsula has set off a stream of sarcastic commentary in the Arabic-speaking quarters of Twitter. Other media outlets however, have taken a more sober tone, drawing parallels with the Arab world’s experience of both militaristic, dictatorial regimes and the nuclear tensions between Iran, its neighbouring states, and the international community. In an article for the Emirati newspaper Al Bayan, also published on the pan-Arab Al Arabiya website, Mohammed Bin Huwaidin highlights the similarity between the showdown on the Korean peninsula and the ongoing nuclear drama in the Persian Gulf. Insisting that the region must remain free of nuclear weapons, he writes:

The responsibility has fallen on everyone’s shoulders to take this matter under consideration and to deal with it seriously. International efforts to convince Iran to halt its suspect nuclear programme are of the highest importance. Conditions must be created that support their success so that we don’t arrive one day and find the North Korean scenario replaying itself in the Gulf, with the language of nuclear blackmail becoming the dominant language of the region.

Writing in the pan-Arab daily Al Sharq Al Awsat, Samir Atallah posits that the most ridiculous aspect of the rising tensions on the Korean peninsula is that “we have to take the boy seriously. He has a nuclear button that he could fiddle with, just like he fiddles with the buttons on the military jacket that he wears.” Following a survey of the poverty and militarism of North Korea, he concludes:

This, then, is the country of the supreme leader and his funny hair and the picture of him in the artillery emplacement pondering which nations to strike with his nuclear missiles. Don’t joke. There are many like him who repress and oppress and incinerate, then smile for the camera, enjoying the limelight. Like you, I think about this world and tremble. It has become full of nuclear-armed children. A ruler no longer needs to accomplish anything: every time he desires extra aid, he merely lays his nuclear pistol on the table.

Writing for the Jordanian website Ammon News, Batir Mohammed Wardam reflects on the Arab public’s reaction to the situation. Sarcasm and apathy have been the main response, he says, because the scenario in North Korea is a familiar one in the Middle East.