Recent missiles launches from North Korea were meant as preparation for an attack on South Korea. North Korean President Kim Jong-un warned the U.S. and South Korea about more live-fire drills in the Yellow Sea, mobilizing a joint fleet of 240 U.S. and South Korean fighter jets in an exercise known as “Vigilant Storm.” While former President Donald Trump was in office, he suspended joint U.S.-South Korean military exercise while he engaged in diplomacy with Pyongyang. Trump defused Kim’s propensity to fire Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles [ICBMs], once calling the 38-year-old erratic dictator “Rocket Man.” Kim had his go around with Trump until the two became friends with Trump becoming the first U.S. president to cross the Demilitarized Zone [DMZ] into North Korea. Trump’s milestone was dismissed by Democrats and the press as grandstanding.
President Joe Biden, 79, has zero rapport with Kim, having destroyed U.S.-Chinese and U.S.-Russian relations, pushing both countries to the brink of WW III. Things are so bad with China that Biden told Chinese President Xi Jinping Sept. 23 that he would defend Taiwan with U.S. troops. Xi accused Biden of violating the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, where former President Jimmy Carter invalidated the 1954 Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty. Carter, in the Taiwan Relations Act, committed the U.S. to recognize only one China, the one in Beijing. So when Biden said he would send U.S. troops to defend Taiwan, U.S.-Chinese relations hit an all-time low. Fighting a bloody proxy war in Ukraine using Ukrainian troop, Biden can’t explain why he hasn’t committed troops to Ukraine when he says democracy is on the line. Biden infuriated the Chinese Communist Party saying he’d defend Taiwan.
Biden has zero rapport with Kim in North Korea, nor does he have any foreign policy clout with China to help contain its nuclear-armed neighbor. Biden has isolated the U.S. in its foreign policy to the point that he only has the Trans-Atlantic Alliance AKA NATO, to rely on for help. NATO wants no part of any war the U.S. might start with Communist China. Brussels-based European Union has strong ties to China and wants not part of Biden’s belligerent actions. EU and NATO officials have pressed Biden to end the Ukraine proxy war against the Russian Federation, driving the worst inflation worldwide in 40 years. Biden has stubbornly resisted calls to end the war, spending over $70 billion U.S. tax dollars to fund the bankrupt Kiev government and the war. No one in the EU or NATO wants any part of a war with the Russian Federation, yet Biden keeps pushing.
Kim’s recent missiles test were a simulated war-like exercise to attack South Korea, a key U.S. ally and manufacturing hub. North Korea’s state news agency [KCNA] said the exercises were intended to “smash the enemies’ persistent war hysteria,” signaling Pyongyang takes the U.S.-South Korean war games seriously. State department officials call Kim’s missile launches “reckless,” collecting missile parts in South Korean territorial waters. Kim reacted harshly to “Vigilant Storm” exercises involving 440 F-35 fighter jets. “The more persistently the enemies’ provocative military moves continue, the more thoroughly and mercilessly the KPA will counter them,” said the KCNA statement. Under Trump, all U.S.-South Korean joint military drills were suspended in good faith. Biden has no plan for dealing with North Korean other than more threats of retaliation.
Diplomatic channels with Russia and China to manage Kim have been shut off by Biden, due to abysmal relations with both countries. Instead of listening to U.S. allies in the EU and elsewhere, Biden has gone full-steam ahead with his proxy war against the Russian Federation. Biden’s proxy war against the Kremlin is the first U.S. war against Russia in U.S. history. All other presidents since WW II have strived to find common ground to get along with Russia and China. But Biden has done everything to alienate both countries, especially Russia, where his proxy war gives Kiev unlimited cash-and-lethal weapons to battle the Russian Federation. Playing with Kim is not a good national security strategy with North Korea, now that Biden can’t use China or Russia as intermediaries. Joint military exercises do nothing to protect the national security of the U.S. and South Korea.
Diplomacy with North Korea is urgent, not conducting provocative military drills that do nothing other than antagonize Kim. Missile expert George Williams Herberts, with the Center for Nonproliferation Studies, said the Hwasong-15 ICBM launched had a different sized nosecone to accommodate a large nuclear explosive. Herberts estimated at the new nosecone could accommodate a 200-300 megaton nuclear explosive. Kim’s warning shots are no joke, putting South Korea, Japan, U.S. targets in harm’s way. Herberts thinks that North Korea has continued to advance its nuclear arsenal now threatening the U.S. mainland should Kim decide to launch against the U.S. Biden no longer has Xi and Putin to talk some sense into Kim, now that U.S.-Chinese and U.S.-Russian relations are at the lowest point in U.S. history. Biden needs Xi and Putin to collaborate on dealing with Pyongyang.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
