As North Korea successfully develops its intercontinental ballistic missile capability, U.S. intelligence says it may have learned to miniaturize nuclear warheads, meaning they could be put on those missiles.
In the meantime, the UN has slapped new sanctions on North Korea, further provoking its crazed communist dictator Kim Jong-un, who has been making lurid threats against the United States and the rest of the world.
Now President Trump has responded in kind:
“North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen . . . .They will be met with fire, fury and frankly power the likes of which this world has never seen before,”
Kim Jong-un’s response? A threat to attack Guam.
I know what some people are thinking. Trump sounds just like Kim Jong Un! Now both of our countries have irrational, out-of-control leaders! They’ll get into a p___ing contest that will escalate into another Korean war! With nuclear weapons!
But that would be a ridiculous and offensive comparison. Whatever you think of the president that America elected, he is a far cry from the neo-Stalinist–and thus hard leftist–dictator of Korea.
I think Trump is just trying to get through to the North Korean leader by communicating in a language that he uses himself and thus might understand.
But the situation with North Korea is, indeed, something to worry about.
Some say that we shouldn’t take Kim Jong-un seriously because he is certifiably insane. But a madman with nuclear weapons is far more dangerous than someone who is sane!
Some, on the other hand, say that Kim Jong-un is not mad at all, but a calculating pragmatist who is playing the nuclear card to get international concessions. That would be a more hopeful scenario, but still difficult to deal with.
Here is an alarmed but plausible analysis from the UK Independent: “This is How Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump Could Start World War III.” The author, Sean O’Grady–who believes Kim Jong-un is sane–makes the point that wars often get started with a seemingly small catalyst, as was the case with World War I, as the assassination of the Austrian archduke led to a domino effect of ever-greater catastrophe. O’Grady explains the dominos that are in place to tip each other over in this case.
To his credit, he isn’t alarmist over Trump, who, he says, is doing the best he can in responding to North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and is acting in similar ways to other U.S. presidents.
What do you think will happen?
What do you think the U.S. president should do?
UPDATE: North Korea says now it will finalize plans this months to shoot test missiles–presumably not nuclear-armed–to land near Guam. But it will not carry them out until Kim Jong-un gives the order. Still, the missiles would fly over Japan, which will doubtless put that nation into a panic and maybe a nuclear program of its own.
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