North Korea’s official Central News Agency [KCNA] said the country needed nuclear bombs and Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles [ICBMs] to defend themselves against joint military exercises between the U.S. and South Korea. North Korea’s 33-year-old Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un often says that nukes and ballistic missiles are needed by the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea [DPRK] to prevent a U.S. or South Korean invasion. Since the Korean War ended July 27, 1953, over 53 years ago, there’s been no invasion or any attempt by the U.S. or South Korea to invade the north. Kim likes to spread his internal propaganda around the planet to justify developing weapons of mass destruction. When Kim’s Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho said Sept. 23 it was “inevitable” that DPRK missiles would strike the United States, President Donald Trump drew his red line.
Detonating a hydrogen bomb Sept. 3 with a blast-yield measuring 6.3 on the Richter Scale got Trump’s attention. Following that up Nov. 28 with an ICBM test flying some 2,800 miles into space before splashing down in the Sea of Japan told Trump and the Pentagon that Kim was closing in on a nuclear-tipped ICBM. However many experts say that Kim doesn’t yet have a deliverable nuke-tipped ICBM hasn’t stopped the Pentagon from working feverishly on contingency plans. Blaming its nuke and ballistic missiles and U.S. and South Korean “blackmail and war drills,” Kim hasn’t heeded several rounds of U.N. resolutions and sanctions demanding that the DPRK disarm its weapons of mass destruction. Kim boasted Nov. 29, after its ICBM test, that the DPRK is a nuclear state, warning that it’s capable of hitting anywhere in continental U.S. or any of its states and territories.
While there’s great interest by Russia, China and the European Union in mediating a peaceful settlement between the U.S. and North Korea, Trump has made clear that Kim must disarm before any talks can begin. Far from disarmament, KCNA insisted Dec. 30 that the DPRK is “bolstering the capabilities for self-defense and pre-emptive attacks with nuclear force,” reminding the Trump administration that the days of diplomacy are slipping away. No world power other than the U.S., Japan and South Korea has been threatened with nuclear war. KCNA said Sept. 14 it will turn the U.S. to “ashes and darkness,” “sink” Japan and “wipe out” South Korea. If Russia, China or the EU were confronted with Kim’s threats, they wouldn’t be so patient with international diplomacy. Trump has warned North Korea that if it doesn’t disarm, the U.S. would have to exercise its military option.
Kim’s Foreign Minister Ri Hong-ho told NATO’s Secretary General Jens Stotenberg Nov. 8 to “relax,” North Korea’s nukes and ballistic missiles were aimed at the United States. Apparently the DPRK doesn’t know that the U.S. is a major part of NATO. Stoltenberg told Ri that North Korea’s nukes and ballistic missiles threaten everyone, not just the U.S., Japan or South Korea. North Korea’s bubble-like state shows that its internal propaganda is so insulated from the outside world, it has no clue about world opinion. When you consider Ri thinks it’s OK to reassure NATO that its nukes are not intended for them, it shows how far gone North Korea from any contact with reality. Trump has applied maximum pressure on China, and, more recently, Russia to try to get through to Kim that Trump means business if the DPRK doesn’t agree to disarm its nuke and ballistic missile arsenal.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Sept. 25 that the U.S. would not strike North Korea because Kim could strike back with nukes. But Russian President Vladimir Putin said Dec. 14 that he did not accept North Korea as a nuclear state, contradicting his foreign minister. Lavrov’s statement was intended to stave off possible U.S. military action, warning about nuclear retaliation. Pentagon officials currently agree with Putin that Kim does not yet have the nuke-capable ICBM to hit the U.S. as threatened by the DPRK. North Korea has a long history of threatening all-out war with the U.S. for staging military exercises with South Korea. But, unlike the past, recent hydrogen bomb and ICBM tests puts Pyongyang as a clear-and-present danger to U.S. national security. Whatever China and Russia can do to get Kim to back down may be too late to avoid a U.S. strike.
KCNA, Kim’s official voice, made clear, there’s nothing anyone can do stop North Korea’s nuclear and ICBM arsenal. “Do not expect any change in its policy. It’s entity as an invincible power can nether be undetermined nor be stamped out,” said KCNA, showing how bad its translations into English. With the Seoul Winter Olympics starting Feb. 9, running through Feb. 25, there’s little Trump can do until the international community clears out of South Korea. No amount of gunboat diplomacy has worked to bring Kim to the disarmament table. All the pressure from the U.N. Security Council, Russia, China and the EU has fallen on deaf ears. “The DPRK as a responsible nuclear weapons state, will lead the trend of history to the only road of independence,” defying the U.N. and all foreign governments—including Russia and China—demanding unconditional de-nuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
