North Korea’s Kim Yo-jong, 35, sister of 39-year-old Supreme Leader Kim jong-un, told the KCNA state news agency the U.S. should avoid a “foolish act” that would threaten security on the Korean Peninsula. U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, 45, provoked Yo-jong after warning the DPRK [Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea] about further testing of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles [ICBMs]. DPRK has been ramping up its nuclear program for years, rejecting all U.S. calls for unilateral disarmament. Kim Jong-un engaged 77-year-old former President Donald Trump in unprecedented talks June 30, 2019 on DRPK’s nuclear program. Trump was in discussions with Kim to dismantle its nuclear program in exchange for humanitarian relief, including substantial foreign aid to help the DPRK modernize its economy to compete globally with South Korea.
Trump’s foreign policy had the advantage of pragmatic-and-cooperative relations with 70year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin who has considerable sway on the North Korea’s supreme leader. Trump relied on his working relationship with Putin to develop clout with Kim Jong-un while he pursued uranium enrichment and plutonium development for the purpose of building nuclear warhead to fit into its ICBM program. Kim claims to have ICBMs to reach the United States, something questioned by defense officials. Debates of Kim’s ICBM technology continue but few nuclear experts doubt that the DPRK has nuclear weapons, no matter how crude. President Joe Biden, 80, finds his foreign policy with zero leverage with North Korean largely because he’s wrecked U.S.-Russian relations. White House officials deny how the Ukraine War damages U.S. foreign policy and national security.
Sullivan’s comments irk Pyomgyang, especially because the U.S. has been moving nuclear-armed submarines to South Korea, not to mention holding joint military exercise with Seoul. :”The U.S. should stop its foolish act of provoking the DPRK even by imperiling its security,” Yo-jong was quoted in KCNA. Kim criticized the U.S. for sending a nuclear-armed submarine into the Yellow Sea. Yo-jong said that provocative acts by the U.S. only “extended deterrence” by DPRK continuing to develop its nuclear arsenal. Gone are the days when Trump walked into North Korea across the Demilitarized Zone [DMZ] for the first time in U.S. history. DPRK is a close ally of the Russian Federation, a bridge Biden burned when he decided to join Ukraine’s war against he Kremlin. Biden has cut U.S. foreign policy at its knees, unable to leverage former global partners like Putin.
Trump once engaged in spirited threats against the DPRK before Kim decided to invite the former president to North Korea in an unprecedented peace overture. When that happened in 2019, Democrats and the U.S. press accused Trump of developing inappropriate relationships with U.S. adversaries. Imagine that? Favorable diplomatic relations are regarded by Democrats and the U.S. press as a threat to U.S. national security. Now that the U.S. is at war with Kremlin, the U.S. no longer has any influence over the DPRK’s nuclear program. U.S. presidents since WW II have worked on nonproliferation, to stop the spread of nuclear weapons. Kim has pushed the pedal-to-the metal with his nuclear program, something he sees as the DPRK’s only effective deterrence against Washington. Biden’s proxy war in Ukraine has undermined U.S. national security.
Sullivan calls on the DPRK for unconditional disarmament talks, to free the Korean Peninsula of nuclear weapons. Well, how’s that supposed to happen now that Biden has turned Russia into a mortal enemy? Sullivan and 60-year-old Secretary of State Antony Blinken have had U.S. foreign policy paralyzed by Biden’s proxy war in Ukraine. If Trump couldn’t get Kim to disarm with help from Putin, how’s that supposed to happen now that the U.S. and Russia are mortal enemies? How Biden can run for reelection is anyone’s guess. He’s put the U.S. into the worst peril since WW II. Gone are the days when the U.S. could count on the Kremlin to help solve hot spots around the planet, including North Korea and Iran. Biden has painted U.S. foreign policy into a dangerous corner, leaving the U.S. vulnerable to nuclear proliferation, with rogue states looking for nuclear blackmail.
Biden’s foreign policy is in shambles, making enemies of once cooperative partners with Russia and China. When it comes to Communist China, the U.S. has never been closer to war over Taiwan. Blinken and Sullivan have damaged U.S.-Chinese relations by accusing Beijing of genocide against Muslim Uyghurs in Western China and a crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong. Biden, Blinken and Sullivan have pushed to extend NATO to the Indo-Pacific region, something that irks the Peoples Republic of China [PRC]. “It’s a daydream for the U.S. to think that it can stop the advance of the DPRK and, furthermore, achieve irreversible disarmament through interim suspension of joint military exercises, halt to the deployment of strategic asses and reversible sanctions relief,” Yo-jong said. Without Russia and China, the U.S. is nowhere in North Korea.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnits.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
