There is an old saying that goes, “When you have nothing to lose, you have nothing to fear.” If the U.N. Security Council’s brutal sanctions have shoved North Korea to the bottom of the economic barrel, the isolated country, whose only ally is China, might no longer have anything to lose.
If North Korea’s supreme leader Kim Jong-un has nothing to lose, he has every reason to engage in reckless international behavior. This will only serve to rally support for his dictatorship at home. The United States cannot underestimate North Korea and be taken by surprise.
North Korea might plan on going out with a barrage of missiles, taking their foreign policy one step further than reacting to international sanctions with baseless threats and accusations. The rogue state continues to flout the banner of arrogance over logic, generating dangerous possibilities for South Korea, Japan, Guam and the United States.
Joint military exercises between the United States and South Korea, intentionally within view of North Korea, provoked war cries from the north.
It is possible, even likely, that Kim Jong-un is advancing the regime’s usual showboating and propaganda, which was a hallmark of his father Kim Jong-il’s leadership. Regardless of its history of bellicose behavior, North Korea’s threats should not be ignored.
The Korean Peninsula was colonized in 1910 by Japan, resulting in World War II and culminating with the Korean War in June of 1950. The United Nations separated the north and south, but the war was ended with a cease-fire, not a treaty, so the situation between the countries remains strained to this day.
There have been American troops buffering the border between the north and south for 60 years since.
Last month, North Korea withdrew from the armistice agreement, essentially declaring war on the south and the United States. The country is threatening a nuclear attack on American targets and has capabilities to strike U.S. bases in Guam, Japan and South Korea. It has cut off all hotlines into the south, too — another unprecedented move.
North Korea knows an attack would be a suicide mission. That deterred Kim Jong-il in the past and likely will deter his son, Kim Jong-un, now, but a military strike is closer than any other time in recent memory.
United Nations’ Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stated with urgency that the nuclear threat is “not a game,” and misjudging or miscalculating Kim Jong-un could have “very serious implications.”
The north set up launch apparatuses for its medium to long range KN-08 Musudan missiles and moved them to the Eastern coast.
North Korea then blocked South Korean access to the Kaesong complex, the only industrial park that joined both countries. The north reopened the shuttered Yongbyon Nuclear installation, in preparation to enrich more uranium for nuclear weapons.
The United States sent two B-52 bombers to the U.S. air base in South Korea in response. We also rerouted the guided missile Destroyer USS McCain from Pacific to Korean waters. When that failed to intimidate the north, we sent F-22s. Last week, the United States dispatched a defense missile shield to Guam, too.
Each time the United States performs a military drill with the south or moves more military machinery into position, North Korea takes another step toward further armament and military strikes. And China, which now boasts a military challenge to the United States, is a longtime ally of North Korea and might come to its defense.
Kim Byungki, South Korean security advisor, said the North’s military capability is “concerning.” He also said North Korean weapons technology has improved considerably, so we shouldn’t underestimate their capacity to strike a target.
The Wall Street Journal noted North Korea “eclipses Iran” in terms of nuclear capabilities. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov is even expressing concern for the threats posed by North Korea, and Russia knows the country much better than we do.
We were taken by surprise by the Japanese Kamikaze suicide pilots in World War II and the Iranian suicide bombers in the Iraq invasion of Iran. Desperate people do desperate things. Even though the chance of a North Korean nuclear attack is slim, we can’t be complacent. Let’s avoid being taken by surprise again.