Sally looked at him sceptically. She pured him some more red wine and asked if he had had enough to eat.
"You see" said Hiro, "North Korea is all about face. Japan and China used to be like that too. Now they're kind of 50 - 50. North Korea is 120% face. And remember that guy Mr Jong Un is just a dictator. He enjoys his lifestyle. If he goes to war he will be destroyed. He knows that. He doesn't want to lose what he's got. But he can't lose face. So when South Korea and America do their war exercises he has to fire a missile or two. That's his only way of saving face. But he can't go to war or he will lose everything."
Hiro stopped to have a drink of red win. "Umai" he said, smacking his lips. There were no more cigarettes these days, they had all given up.
"It's a dictatorship like the Tokugawa shgunate in sixteenth century Japan where one guy owns everything. Its crazy but he owns everything and he will lose the lot if he goes to war. I have a friend who goes to North Korea every year. He says that the people know that they will lose a war. They also know that in the West normal people live like kings. In North Korea they have nothing. It is a dictatorship but the people know what is going on. Maybe, one day, it will all be over."
After the meal, Hiro looked at his watch. He had to catch a flight back to Japan in the morning. Grimshaw gave him a lift back to his hotel. There was a lot of traffic. With football finals there were people wearing footy scarves everywhere. Hiro's hotel was down near Crown casino. He was enjoying his work more than ever, he said, now that he was a manager. Even though he had to fly economy he could travel and see family in Europe as well as come to Australia every six months. This were also in-between visits to Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan. He didn't spend time in China much anymore. While he was in Japan he often went on trips to Nigata to take photos. There were a lot of cheap houses up there apparently. Even though he didn't own his apartment in Tokyo he was considering buying a house in Nigata when he retired. That is if a missile didn't fall apart on its trajectory over Japan and start a war. That was the only way America would go to war with North Korea, he figured, and then it was all over for Mr Jong Un.
