Reacting to 71-year-old President Donald Trump’s speech to the U.N. General Assembly Sept. 19, 34-year-old North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un called Trump a deranged “dotard,” an obsolete term referring to an hearing-impaired senile old man. “I will surely and definitely tame the mentally deranged U.S. dotard with fire,” Kim said in a nationwide address. “Action is the best option in treating the dotard who, hard of hearing, is uttering only what he wanted to say,” referring to Trump’s remarks to the General Assembly that he would “destroy” North Korea. Getting under Kim’s skin, Trump’s pushing who he calls “Rocket Man” to detonate a new hydrogen bomb over the Pacific. North Korea’s Foreign Minister Ri Young-ho confirmed that Kim was considering exploding a hydrogen bomb into the atmosphere, pushing Trump to trigger the military option.
Since Trump warned Kim Aug. 8 about “fire-and-fury” for continuing to fire ballistic missiles, the United Nations and European Union has been in a frenzy worrying about war on the Korean Peninsula. Once thought unthinkable, an attack on North Korea is a growing probability, reaching the imminent stage. While not inevitable yet, Trump’s dead serious about stopping Kim’s capacity to make nukes and Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles [ICBMs]/. There’s zero evidence that the U.N. Security Council’s Sept. 12 sanctions will stop Kim’s nukes and ballistic missile program. In a moment of candor, Russian President Vladimir Putin admitted Sept. 5 that Kim would rather eat grass than give up his nukes and ballistic missiles, making the prospects for war ever more likely. Trump told Sen. Lindsey Grsham (R-S.C) Aug. 1 to his face he won’t let Kim get a nuke-tipped ICBM.
Kim’s warning about detonating another hydrogen bomb over the Pacific Ocean would be the first above ground explosion since 1980. “It could be the most powerful detonation of an H-bomb in the Pacific. We have no idea what actions could be taken as it will be ordered by leader Kim Jong-un,” Foreign Minister Ri told Yonhap news. Kim’s threats should be taken “very seriously,” said MIT International Relations professor Vipin Narang. If Narang doesn’t think Trump’s taking Kim “very seriously,” then what else needs to be said. Trump told the U.N. General Assembly that more provocations by Kim would result in the U.S. “destroying” North Korea. Narang suggests that Trump’s bluffing when he says the military option is on the table. Kim’s been put on notice that his nuclear threats against the United State and its allies won’t be tolerated, inching closer to a U.S. military attack
Exploding a nuke above ground in the Pacific Ocean would require Kim to once again launch the missile over Japan. No matter how much China and Russia want the situation to be resolved diplomatically, there’s no more diplomacy when a sovereign nation like the U.S. has been threatened with nuclear war. Kim told his KCNA state news agency Sept. 14 that would turn the U.S. to “ashes and darkness,” “sink Japan” and “wipe out” South Korea, something so ominous, so intolerable that Trump had put the U.N. General Assembly on notice that he’s dead serious. “An atmospheric nuclear test . . . would be a huge provocation. We are talking about putting a live nuclear warhead on a missile that has only been tested a handful of times and over-flying potentially populated areas,” said MIT’s Narang. Defense Secretary James “Mad Dog” Mattis said Sept. 18 the Pentagon is ready for anything.
China fears an attack on North Korea would create a humanitarian catastrophe on its border, with North Koreans fleeing to China. Announcing yesterday that China’s Central Bank would advise its banking system to stop doing business with North Korea, China has put down the hammer on Kim. Whether that brings Kim to the bargaining table is anyone’s guess. On a geopolitical level, China doesn’t want the U.S. or South Korea to consider reunification of North and South Korea. China’s communist past still pits them as an adversary to the U.S., still allied with other communist states like Russia and North Korea. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has told China the U.S. does not seek reunification of the two Koreas. If the U.S. takes down Kim’s regime, China could play a big role in a transitional government, assuring that U.S. and South Korea stay out of North Korea.
North Korea’s rapid escalation of its nuke and ballistic missiles are a:clear-and-present danger to the United State because of Kim’s threats of nuclear annihilation. No sovereign state can be threatened with nuclear war without consequences. While U.N, EU, Russia and China want to avoid war, the U.S. has been directly threatened with nuclear annihilation by North Korea. Detonating one more hydrogen bomb, especially over the Pacific Ocean, would be sufficient grounds to trigger a massive U.S. strike on Pyongyang. Trump told South Korean President Moon Jae-in Sept. 4 that “appeasement” won’t work to disarm Kim Jong-un. If Kim goes ahead with another H-bomb test, all bets are off when it comes to the military option. National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster said Sept. 16 that there is “no more road left to kick the can.” Trump simply can’t let Kim threaten the U.S. with nuclear war.
