Delivering his annual New Year’s message, 33-year-old North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un left no doubt that his pursuit of a nuclear-tipped International Continental Missile [ICBM]is absolute, non-negotiable. Cleverly worming his way in to divide the U.S. and South Korea, Kim asked to send a delegation to the Feb. 8 Seoul Winter Olympics. Whether Kim likes it or not, South Korea’s 64-year-old President Moon Jae-in is hopelessly dependent on the U.S. to preserve his country’s sovereignty from a North Korean invasion. Not a second goes by in South Korea, knowing that Korean unification would mean the end of South Korea, incorporating the world’s 20th largest economy into Kim’s Stalinist state. Wracked by widespread poverty, food shortages and hopeless future, Kim’s North Korea illustrates the economic, social and cultural devastation from the world’s most repressive Communist state.
Kim’s New Year’s greeting was intended for U.S. and South Korean consumption, asserting his military superiority as a nuclear state. President Donald Trump, his Defense Secretary Gen. James Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson reject the idea that North Korea is a nuclear state. “The entire United States is within range of our nuclear weapons, a nuclear button is always on my desk. This is reality not a threat,” Kim said. If telling Trump that every American city is within Kim’s nuclear range is not a threat, then what is? Kim’s message clearly signals that any military action by the U.S. to neutralize Kim’s nuclear arsenal would be met with a nuclear strike. “This year, we should focus on mass-producing nuclear warheads and ballistic missiles for operational deployment. These weapons will be only used if our society is threatened,”said Kim’s New Year’s greeting.
Trump heard all he needed to know that after the end of the Seoul Winter Games Feb. 25, all bets are off when it comes to a U.S. military strike. Putting all his cards on the table, Kim hopes to intimidate the U.S., but more importantly, South Korea, who’s placated North Korea since the war ended July 27, 1953. Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Bush-43 and Obama Gen. Mike Mullen said yesterday that the U.S. is closer to nuclear war than anytime in history. Mullen puts some of the blame on Trump for provocative statements, calling Kim “Rocket Man” Sept. 19, 2017 at the U.N. General Assembly. Trump responded to all-too-often threats of nuclear war against the U.S. coming from North Korea, saying Sept. 14 it will turn the U.S. to “ashes and darkness,” “sink” Japan and “wipe out” South Korea. Mullen know Trump faces tough choices in 2018.
Several rounds of U.N. resolutions and sanctions demanding Kim “de-nuclearize” the Korean Peninsula have been defiantly ignored. Without an enforcement mechanism, the U.N. leaves it to the U.S. to enforce its resolutions, despite saying it wants a diplomatic solution. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov offered Dec. 24, 2017 to mediate talks between the U.S. and North Korea. Trump’s made it clear that there can be no talks until North Korean aggress to disarm its nuclear and ballistic missile arsenal, something Kim refuses to do. Trump told South Korea Sept. 3, after Kim detonated a hydrogen bomb with a blast-yield measuring 6.3 on the Richter Scale, that appeasement is no longer an option. Voices in South Korea, including President Moon, are calling for appeasement. Whatever the risks to South Korea, with Seoul only 35 miles from the Demilitarized Zone [DMZ], Trump won’t appease the dictator.
Kim’s New Year’s greeting is precisely what Trump needs for military option sometime after the Seoul Olympics. Whether Moon lets North Korea to send a delegation or not, it doesn’t change the implacable fact that Kim has threatened the U.S. with nuclear war. Whether or not experts agree on Kim’s timetable for an operational nuke-ready ICBM, Trump no longer has the luxury to give the benefit of doubt. China, Russia and the European Union all want to avoid the U.S. military action—let alone nuclear war—on the Korean Peninsula. But Trump’s metric for military action has to weigh the costs of Kim getting a nuclear-ready ICBM on U.S. national security. Even partisans like Mullen must agree that if Kim gets an operational nuclear ICBM, all bets are off. No one in the U.S. will feel safe with the erratic dictator’s finger close the nuclear button.
Twenty-five years of complacent U.S. policy—over three American presidents—on North Korea has left U.S. national security in extreme danger. Trump drew a red line with North Korea, promising during the campaign and his presidency to neutralize Kim’s nuclear capability. No amount of diplomacy, so far, has changed Kim’s New Year’s greeting, warning the U.S. of an impending nuclear attack. Kim’s Foreign Minister Ri Hong-ho told the U.N. General Assembly Sept. 23 that a North Korean missile attack on the U.S. was “inevitable.” Trump can only go on Kim and his government’s words. “There’s one concrete overture [in Kim’s speech] is about the Olympics. And it’s a positive one. And we know it’s very important for Seoul,” said North Korea expert John Delury at Yonasei Graduate School, showing that appeasement still runs deep in South Korea.
