While tensions appear to have subsided on the Korean Peninsula recently after a few months of threats and tests, the feeling that the situation is more dangerous now than ever remains. The scale of the bombast that marked March and early April has even left some analysts nostalgic for the “more rational” rule of Kim Jong Il. Typical of this thinking is a Max Boot column from April, where he wrote, “Sure, (Kim Jong Il) may have been a murderous tyrant who lived the high life while his people literally starved — but at least he was predictable and