Since promising “fire-and-fury” Aug. 8 to North Korea for its nuclear threats against the United States, 71-year-old President Donald Trump has finally gotten through to Pyongyang. North Korea’s 33-year-old dictator Kim Jong-un struck a defiant tone firing an intermediate range ballistic missile over Japan Aug. 28, then detonating a hydrogen bomb Sept. 3. Trump warned the hermit nation Sept 19 to the U.N. General Assembly that if Kim continued to threaten nuclear war against the U.S., it would have no choice but to “totally destroy” North Korea. Since Trump’s five-nation Asian trip, Trump ordered three carrier battle groups into the Sea of Japan around the Korean Peninsula, sending a loud message to Pyongyang that the U.S. is ready-and-willing to use military force if diplomacy fails. North Korea’s U.N. Amb. Ja Song-nam said it’s “the worst situation ever.”
Complaining to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that the U.S. was pushing the region to the brink, Song-nam accused the Whtie House of provoking WW III. Kim of course has few allies that would fight to protect the world’s last Stalinist state, throwing cold water on his WW III scenario.. Accusing the U.S. of “running amok for war exercise by introducing nuclear war equipment in and around the Korean Peninsula,” Song-nam finally acknowledges that Trump’s warnings are finally sinking in. Since threatening Sept. 22 an above-ground nuclear test in the Pacific, Kim has put his nukes and ballistic missiles on hold. Aside from trading barbs with Trump, only yesterday calling the U.S. president a “dotard” or senile old man, Trump said he was insulted, insisting tongue-in-cheek that he would never call Kim “short-and-fat,” continuing to trade insults.
State Department career diplomats and foreign service officials have called the spat “unprofessional,” pushing the region closer to war. But if you judge today’s admission by North Korea’s U.N. ambassador, it looks like Trump’s winning the war of words. North Korea hasn’t engaged in a provocative act since detonating a hydrogen bomb Sept. 3. With a North Korean defector shot fleeing across the DMZ into South Korea, North Korea’s doesn’t have much credibility at the U.N. Complaining the Guterres about U.S. aggression makes zero sense when North Korea’s making all the nuclear threats. North Korea’s Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho said Sept. 13 he’d reduce the U.S. to “darkness-and-ashes,” “sink” Japan and “wipe out” South Korea. Trump’s the first U.S. president to set a red line on North Korea’s nukes and ballistic missiles programs.
North Korea’s U.N. Amb. Song-nam showed concerns about escalating tensions, blaming Trump for the incitement. But if you read between the lines, North Korea’s suddenly seeking U.N. help to deal with Trump. Calling “the nuclear war exercises of the United States who is hell bent on bringing catastrophic disaster to humanity,” Song-nam hopes to pressure Europe into getting Trump to back down. Judging by NATO’s Secretary-General Jason Stoltenberg, the European Union feels threatened by North Korean nukes and Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles [ICBMs]. North Korean tried to reassure the EU that its nukes were only targeted toward the U.S. North Korean officials are too brainwashed to understand that the world doesn’t back their policies. North Korea complains it needs nukes and ICBMs to top a U.S. invasion, something that hasn’t happened since the end of the Korean War July 27, 1953.
North Korea wants Guterres to go to the U.N. Security Council to get a ruling against the United States. If anything, the Security Council would admonish North Korea into disarming, something Trump insists. “The danger being posed by the U.S. nuclear war exercises, what are clearly threats to international peace and security,” said North Korea in classic Orwellian doublespeak. North Korea’s the one threatening nuclear war, detonating hydrogen bombs and shooting off ballistic missiles. Guterres has one message for Pyongyang: Follow the Security Council resolution and disarm at the earliest possible time. North Korea’s too isolated to comprehend that the world’s not attacking them—they’re the ones threatening the region the world. Whether admitted to or not, Trump’s got Kim Jong-un to back down, now looking for a diplomatic solution to preserve his regime.
Returning home from his Asian trip, Trump has more leverage with North Korea, getting Chinese President Xi Jinping to call to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula. North Korea has little sympathy in the U.N. for its nukes and ballistic missile program. Trump managed a consensus among Pacific Rim countries to call on Pyongyang to disarm. Whether Kim listens is anyone’s guess. Letting diplomacy play itself out, Trump has the clout to disarm North Korea if it refuses to give up its nukes and ballistic missiles. Collecting billions in trade deals with the Pacific Rim and building a consensus to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula, Trump accomplished his mission in Asia. Kim wants the U.S. to end war games with South Korea. Unless Kim agrees to dismantle his nukes and ballistic missiles, he’s on a collision course with the U.S. military. Trump drew his red line for all to see.
