In recent months, North Korea’s despotic Supreme Leader, Kim Jong Un, has continued his pursuit of nuclear weapons, and ballistic missile platforms capable of delivering them to targets all around the globe, but a distinct shift in rhetoric coming from the region has begun to alter our American perspective of the situation. In the minds of many, heightened tensions with North Korea could be attributed to America’s controversial and conservative president, because those who disagree with Donald Trump would rather attribute all of the problems this country faces to his spray tan, rather than approach each with an objective and analytical mindset.
The thing is, North Korea has been an issue since well before Trump took office, and the situation we find ourselves in now is nothing more than the natural escalation of Kim’s rule. The only elements of this scenario that have really changed during the Trump presidency are how close Kim finally is to achieving his goal, and how much attention we’re paying to the situation in the media.
Recognizing that they stand little chance of winning a staring contest with multiple carrier strike groups and nearly 30,000 American soldiers bolstering South Korean defenses just south of the demilitarized zone, North Korea decided to follow Vladimir Putin’s lead a few months ago, and start working to take charge of the narrative. Instead of working tirelessly to present the image of a military peer worthy of fear and respect (as they have so comically attempted in the past), North Korea is now trying to paint a very different picture: one where they admit to being smaller and less powerful – in order to pretend they’re the victim of geopolitical bullying, rather than being subject to the same rule of law that governs most modern nations.
In short, North Korea is pointing its well-honed propaganda machine outward for a change, and it’s beginning to work. Kim, or at least his advisors, seem well aware that they don’t need to win a fight on their shores to defeat America, they just need to alter how the American people see a conflict with them. A strategic military victory in the Pacific could even bolster American support for war with North Korea… but if there’s one thing modern American culture truly hates, it’s a bully. By making it seem like our government is that bully, North Korea, as well as other competitors like Russia, can begin to deflate American support for a war before it ever develops.
So let’s take this opportunity to look back on some of North Korea’s statements to the world at large before they started pretending they’re the victim of a Trump-led conspiracy intent on ruining their chances at financial security (by way of strong arming trade deals through nuclear threats, as Kim hopes to do).
In 2009, North Korea’s government issued a statement to announce that it had “tremendous military muscle and its own method of strike able to conquer any targets in its vicinity at one stroke or hit the U.S. on the raw, if necessary.”
In 2013, the North Korean government released images of Kim and his top military advisors pouring over documents with a map in the background that read, “US Mainland Strike Plan.” The image was accompanied in state-owned media outlets with the description: “He finally signed the plan on technical preparations of strategic rockets, ordering them to be on standby to fire so that they may strike any time the U.S. mainland, its military bases in the operational theaters in the Pacific, including Hawaii and Guam, and those in south Korea,” a KCNA report in English said.
Another statement in 2013 read, “Now that the US is set to light a fuse for a nuclear war, (our) revolutionary armed forces… will exercise the right to a pre-emptive nuclear attack to destroy the strongholds of the aggressors.”
“The moment of explosion is approaching fast,” the statement read, warning that war could break out “today or tomorrow.”
In July of 2014, the director of the general political bureau of North Korea’s military claimed, “If the U.S. imperialists threaten our sovereignty and survival … our troops will fire our nuclear-armed rockets at the White House and the Pentagon — the sources of all evil.”
In February of 2015, North Korea declared, “Since the gangster-like US imperialists are blaring that they will ‘bring down’ the DPRK (North Korea) … the army and people of the DPRK cannot but officially notify the Obama administration … that the DPRK has neither need nor willingness to sit at negotiating table with the US any longer.”
It added that the North was capable of bringing about the “final ruin of the US” with its “precision and diversified nuclear striking means.”
Let’s be clear, this is neither a complete list, nor is it a list of their most egregious threats against the United States – it’s literally just a collection of the most easily accessible threats North Korea has levied in the past few years. You could devote the rest of your day to finding examples of North Korea threatening pre-emptive nuclear strikes against America and its allies, or the propaganda videos Kim’s regime has released depicting the destruction of U.S. cities. The thing is, none of this surprises any of you, because you’ve heard it all before.
So why are we starting to second guess whether or not North Korea is a dangerous enemy, not only of the United States, but to stability in the Pacific? Is it because our internal political disputes are more important that our own actual physical safety? Or is it because we’re so saturated with media content, that we can be easily persuaded to change our minds about things we once knew with certainty?
Maybe they’re just that good at PR.
Don’t be persuaded by the “everything America does is bad,” rhetoric, and don’t fall into the “if we just left bad guys alone, they’d stop being bad!” logical trap we hear from our society’s great thinkers (like Katy Perry). Instead, look at the evidence, and decide for yourself. It’s easy to find a thousand think pieces, podcasts, and essays written about how uncomfortable left-leaning folks are with Donald Trump’s finger on the nuclear button…
So we should ask ourselves… shouldn’t we be more concerned with this guy’s nukes instead?
A war with North Korea isn’t inevitable, nor is it in our best interest… but we must remain unwavering and resolute about allowing Kim to develop weapons of mass destruction, otherwise we’re approaching the diplomatic negotiating table with a weak hand and little hope for success.
Images courtesy of KCNA, Reuters
Editorial cartoon courtesy of Robert L. Lang
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I'm struggling to believe that anyone could find sympathy for the Kim regime, however much they hate the US. They are SO bad you think they could not possibly play the victim card. Then again, there are so many Americans who are determined to hate everything about our country at all costs. I'VE GOT IT! I know how NK can win this and defeat the imperialist USA. Declare the entirety of NK a "Safe Space." Three quarters of the US college population will then volunteer for Kim's peoples' army as foreign fighters.
North Korea will be around for a while. Not much can be done. Isolation, extreme sanctions, and other tactics do some damage, but not to the regime. Even if they develop a nuke, they likely will not use it. And if they do, they essentially sign their own demise. Kim and his group are cowards. They will rattle swords. I say, let them. Let them rattle. Instigate them to rattle more if anything. Get them so riled up that China starts to have issues. China will one day have to deal with its little brother. North Korea is a drop in the bucket of international interests that should be of more concern....
It would be great if one of the North Korean Generals could pull off the whole deal like that Field Marshal before anyone knew what was going on! But yes, Kim has already killed the Generals he thought may be any kind of a threat. But maybe there is one left, with some following, at least we can hope! Thanks YP, that was interesting, as always!
. ...While the cartoon is funny, MacArthur did not want to nuke North Korea. Late 1950 early 1951 there were no targets in North Korea worth an A bomb. (Tactical nukes came into being shortly before the end of the war there...) The country in the North was so mountainous that damage to very well dug in Chinese and North Korean forces would not be worth the potential escalation and definite bad press. ...MacArthur was an astoundingly intelligent and brave soldier. He was also a loose cannon who was capable of strokes of genius... and near hysteria when the bottom fell out... He ignored masses of intelligence that the Red Chinese were in Korea in large numbers. Part of that was years of cultivating a staff that only told him what he wanted to hear. ...When he was forced to face the fact that his near perfect finish to the war had just been ruined... he lost perspective. He told his (nominal, as he saw it) superiors in Washington that he might have to evacuate his army from the Korean Penninsula unless he was given full authority to strike back at Red China... including a naval blockade, conventional bombing... "Unleashing Chiang Kai Shek" and if that didn't work, maybe nukes. The White House suddenly remembered that early in the Korean War an "accident" had taken place with U.S. fighter bombers strafing a Soviet air base North of the Korean border... ... ... ...The senior officer on the ground in Korea had been killed in a vehicle accident and he was replaced with Matt Ridgway... one of the finest officers that the Republic ever produced. This tough paratrooper took over the work of his late predecessor and quickly determined that the recent defeats and retreat the result of bad intelligence... a deployment suitable for chasing bandits... not facing masses of determined troops... and operating where America's greatest strengths... armor, artillery and air were largely negated. ...But the Chinese advanced too far... and once the American forces got hold of themselves, they would see that the Chinese were now out in the open... at the end of a too long supply line... with exhausted troops and almost nothing in the way of armor or artillery. ...Ridgway cracked the whip and a routed mob soon became an avenging army that slaughtered the Red Chinese in great numbers. MacArthur went from wildly optimistic to unnecessary despair and back. Once Ridgway started getting results, MacArthur got a grip... but continued to demand far more than was in his job description. ...Truman had let MacArthur get the reins between his teeth and treat some of his instructions from Washington like a birthday greeting. Those days were past. His playing politics over the President's head would soon enough get him fired. ...In the early part of the Chinese incursion, the media asked Truman about the use of the A bomb. Truman made a hash out of the answer. Said "nothing is off the table", but seemed to indicate that MacArthur had full authority to use nukes as he saw fit. Not at all what Truman meant, but it nearly caused the British government to soil itself... British PM flew immediately for discussions with Truman. ...The U.S. ultimately decided to have the capability to clobber the Chinese with nukes to hand. Special B-29 squadron in Okinawa. Some nuclear cores sent to Iwo Jima. The Air Force ran a two part operation for the rest of the Korean War called, "Operation Hudson Harbor..." ...Part was training flights that simulated (as well as could be done without nukes aboard) real strikes on Chinese targets in Manchuria and elsewhere... though the flights never got anywhere near China. ...The other part was good old fashioned intimidation. Frequently a single B-29 bomber (operating south of Red Chinese/Russian air units on both sides of the Yalu) would fly near the (now reoccupied) North Korean capital and drop a single bomb... either a large conventional one... or sometimes a wooden dummy shaped like a nuke. Even Kim Il Sung had to have gotten the hint. ...Ike ran for President saying, "If elected, I will go to Korea..." That meant whatever the electorate wanted it to mean. He was elected... flew to Korea, had some briefings and quietly let his generals know that he would be satisfied if the fighting stopped. ...South Korea had survived. The border was no longer at the 38th Parallel.. but well North of in along much of the line. Given enough years and the South Korean Army would be able to defend that line. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4bc97f1ecb015762c2df82c364ef93babac65f44fa24bdae3b432ec908b97173.jpg ...There wasn't anything much in the North worth trading a battalion of American soldiers for each hill taken. The Red Chinese and the North Koreans just needed to get off the pot. ...America had gone through most of the war advertising its moves and objectives to everybody, including the enemy. They made good use of that information. But suddenly we shut up. Ike was President... a five star general who had commanded the largest Western coalition in history. The Communists were caught up in their own propaganda... Ike had to be a warmonger. ...In May of 1953 the U.S. fired a 280mm artillery piece on a test range in the U.S. The shell traveled seven miles... and a tactical nuke went off as an airburst... producing a 15 kiloton result. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1d9449cc9b8ca56180f271c3cefaddd93f95cc69c5e70addab700c1eb53987fb.gif The White House started dropping hints that a stalemate in Korea was not going to be "tolerated" much past summer of that year. The North Koreans ignored the rumors... the Chinese worried, and the Russians (along with the U.S. State Department) were alarmed. Stalin had just died, and the lash-up was run by a committee too concerned about back-stabbing to be willing to be drawn into a titanic war with the United States. "Somehow" information leaked to the Communists that a 280mm weapon had been sent to Japan... and nuclear shells "very near" (Iwo...) The Soviets told the Chinese that the game was over... the Chinese had to make dire (and quite believable) threats to Kim Il Sung to get him on board for ending the war. -Yankee Papa-
Didn't McCarthur want to nuke China? Or at least bomb north of the yellow river. That's the thing that worries me more than NK is war with China.