Playing into North Korea’s hand, 45-year-old U.N. Amb. Nikki Haley showed her bravado saying, “all options were on the table” in response to North Korea’s March 7 intermediate missile launches into the Sea of Japan. Giving 32-year-old North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un what he wants, Haley delivered the veiled threat something bound to antagonize China, already irked by the White House’s decision to go ahead with Terminal High Altitude Area [THAAD] missile defense. “We are not dealing with a rational person,” said Haley, making public remarks bound to antagonize Beijing as they deal with President Donald Trump’s more muscular approach in the South China Sea, where China has built a series of shallow-water military installations. Whether Kim’s stable or not, he knows how to blackmail the West into making more concessions to avert war on the Korean Peninsula.
With so much more to lose, South Korean wants no part of any U.S. policy that could lead to war on Korean Peninsula. Fighting the U.S. to loggerheads in 1953, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Korean War armistice, ending active hostilities but not the war. U.S. found out the hard way what it’s like battling the Communist Chinese in North Korea. With Communist China as its No. 1 ally, North Korean kept the America at bay, effectively splitting Korea into two parts at the 42nd parallel. “It’s unbelievable, irresponsible arrogance that we are seeing coming out of Kim Jong-un at this time,” Haley said. Whatever the U.S. does, it’s not, as Haley suggests, in a position to antagonize North Korea or its Chinese benefactor. Whatever Kim does, including spinning uranium, manufacturing plutonium or building A or H-bombs, China backs them up.
New at the job, Haley doesn’t know that threatening North Korea with “all options are on the table” only makes a bad situation worse, dragging Communist China to North Korea’s defense. Kim knows exactly what he’s doing firing off intermediate-range missiles. Kim knows every ballistic missile or threat of nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles buys him more leverage. Showing that China is on North Korea’s side, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi blamed Kim’s recent missile tests on U.S.-South Korea joint military exercises. Calling North Korea and South Korea hostilities “accelerating trains coming toward each other,” Yi called on the U.S. and South Korea to suspend all joint military exercises. Calling for “dual suspension,” Yi thinks he can get North Korea to suspend nuclear and ballistic missile activity in exchange for the U.S. ending joint military drills.
Stationing 28,500 troops in South Korea since signing the July 27, 1953 armistice, the U.S. kept its forces present to keep the peace. North Korea and especially China aren’t moved by idle U.S. threats. “We are making those decisions now and we will act accordingly,” said Haley, threatening to take, if needed, military action. With a Gross Domestic Product of $1.4 trillion, considered the 11th largest world economy, South Korea wants no part of any war. Kim’s North Korea ranks 125th with a $25 billion GDP, having much less to lose in war than its successful southern neighbor. Nowhere on the planet is the contrast between capitalism and communism so stark than between South and North Korea. Haley rejected Yi’s suggestion that the U.S. and South Korea suspend all joint military exercises. Yi wants the U.S. to rescind its sale of THAAD to South Korea.
Calling on North and South Korea to reduce growing tensions on the Korean Peninsula, Yi called for both parties to make concrete peace overtures. “The most important thing is to implement those Security Council Resolutions in a comprehensive way, including reducing tensions and also not to do anything to exacerbate tension on the Korean Peninsula,” said China’s U.N. Amb. Liu Jieyi. Jueyi’s comments are directed to the U.S. for deploying THAAD missile defense in South Korea. Showing how far the U.S. is off from placating Beijing, Jueyi’s remarks blame the U.S. for provoking North Korea into taking such extreme measures like actively developing and H-bomb and firing ballistic missiles whenever threatened. “We have to see some sort of positive action taken by North Korea before we can ever take them seriously,” said Haley, rejecting Beijing’s call for both sides to cease-and-desist.
Installing THAAD missile defense in South Korea has antagonized Beijing and Moscow, also objecting to the U.S. installing missile Defense in Poland and Romania. While condemning North Korea for firing missiles in the Security Council, the Chinese actually back North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile activity. Beijing sees Kim Jong-un as a wild card, keeping the U.S. away from military installations in the South China Sea and from intervening in North Korea. “The threat comes from DPRK [North Korea] and continued plan to nuclearize the DPRK and it is that program of nuclearization that needs to stop immediately,” said British U.N. Amb. Matthew Rycoft, rejecting Beijing’s idea of suspending U.S.-South Korea joint military drills. With Haley playing tough, it hurts Trump’s attempt at “quiet diplomacy” where the enemy doesn’t really know where the U.S. stands.
