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U.S. pre-emptive strike plan against N. Korea

Posted November. 03, 2017 08:43,   

Updated November. 03, 2017 10:00

한국어

A recent series of exchanges of hostile words between the United States and North Korea have clearly revealed the Maginot lines of Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un. Choe Son-hui, director general of the North American Department in North Korea’s Foreign Affairs Ministry, told the Moscow Nonproliferation Conference on October 21 that Pyongyang’s nuclear development was its “only way to protect our national sovereignty.” She added that the North’s “nuclear weapons are non-negotiable unless the United States is prepared to co-exist” with a nuclear-armed North Korea. Katina Adams, a spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department, said that Washington will never recognize Pyongyang as a nuclear state, reiterating U.S. President Donald Trump’s resolute determination to thwart the North’s nuclear ambition.

The North’s nuclear program also significantly affects China and Russia. The two countries want South Korea and the United States to stop their joint military exercises first. Seoul and Washington did so in the 1990s, only to be deceived by Pyongyang’s nuclear development. This is why Beijing’s approach is not convincing.

Pressed by layers of international sanctions and pressures, North Korea is seeking a way out of its trouble via Russia, rather than China. It was in this vein that the North Korean diplomat had an opportunity to propagandize Pyongyang’s nuclear development. The United States is mobilizing all of its state-of-the-art military assets to stop Pyongyang’s nuclear development in the framework of a 194 countries against one (North Korea).

“Our country has been unsuccessfully dealing with North Korea for 25 years, giving billions of dollars & getting nothing. Policy didn't work!” Trump said in a Twitter comment, vowing to resolve the issue. When the China card and diplomatic and military pressures are exhausted, a pre-emptive strike is inevitable. At any rate, Trump will never pass the chronic North Korean issue over to his successor. However, it is unlikely for the United States, which respects the international norms, will carry out a reckless pre-emptive strike against the North.

A pre-emptive strike can be possible when the North Korean nuclear weapons become capable of reaching the U.S. mainland or when Pyongyang gives Washington an excuse for exercising a self-defensive right. Every time the United States pre-emptively struck another country in the past, it always used self-defense as the cause. Rather than just saying no war on the Korean Peninsula at all, South Korea should have a thorough understanding of Washington’s strategy against the North Korean nuclear program and be thoroughly prepared. There is no one in the world who would hate peace.


YOH,YEUNG-MOO, director of the Liberty Korea