U.S. must draw line on North Korea

The Trump administration has its first major international crisis. It might not seem that way yet to the public, but revelations over the last week make it very clear that Washington must take action — strong action, and quickly — against North Korea.

The first incident, earlier this week, made headlines, but seemed somehow familiar. North Korea attempted five ballistic-missile launches into the Sea of Japan. Four of the missiles performed as expected, landing inside Japan’s exclusive economic zone — a space-age version of a shot across the bow. The fifth missile reportedly failed to launch. Even with that failure, the threat was clear: North Korea’s ballisticmissile program is advancing rapidly and can now be considered a viable, effective threat to U.S. allies and military bases in the Pacific. While North Korea is not yet believed to have a reliable ballistic missile with truly intercontinental range, sufficient to hit Washington, New York or Boston, it is clearly making strides. Hawaii is probably already in range. San Francisco and Seattle won’t be far behind. is the critical step that takes a country from the already significant capability of building a working nuclear device to having an arsenal that can be wielded effectively in battle. It is enormously significant.

It’s bad enough that years of work to contain or hinder North Korea’s nuclear program have been unable to stop the North Koreans themselves from developing such technology. It is utterly unacceptable that they are now offering it up on the global market. The materials and associated know-how and technology could advance a nation’s nuclear program by decades, allowing it to amass small, efficient warheads, easily delivered by jet plane or many common types of missile. It is a dangerously destabilizing move.

And it’s one President Trump must answer.

The steps taken so far are promising. After the missile launches of earlier this week, the United States began deploying Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile defence batteries to South Korea. THAAD is one of the United States’ most-advanced missile defence systems; their deployment to South Korea is both a real contribution to that ally’s defence and a clear signal to the North Koreans that the Trump administration means business (that that message will also resonate in Beijing is doubtless a welcome fringe benefit for the White House). THAAD’s deployment is a good, smart start.

But it’s not enough. The North Koreans must not be permitted to freely disseminate nuclear matériel around the world. Previous attempts by the regime to do exactly that — to Syria, notably — were shut down violently by Israeli military action. As horrible as it is to contemplate a devastating war on the Korean peninsula, military action must be on the table, if that’s what it takes to shut down the nuclear program of a regime clearly bent on destabilizing the world using its most lethal weapons.

And in the meantime, diplomacy should be ramped up. Not diplomacy with North Korea; the dysfunctional regime of Kim Jong Un is too warped to reason with. But China should be pushed to abandon its support of its unstable, dangerous ally. The U.S. should count on the support of its regional allies and friends around the world, including Canada.

Our Liberal government has too often shown itself willing, even eager, to turn a blind eye to the worst of China’s crimes. Perhaps the spectre of a delusional, paranoid North Korean regime spreading nuclear know-how and technology across the globe will force our government into a more realistic stance, in line with the interests of our allies — and of humanity.