Trump’s threat against North Korea: Credible or premature articulation?
The problem with issuing a dire ultimatum as a first response to a traditionally bellicose regime is that the one issuing it is boxed in. That could well be the problem that President Donald Trump could likely face as he deals with North Koreas supreme leader Kim JongUns increasingly aggressive moves threatening the United States.
In a statement that is said to have taken the national security establishment by surprise, the US president said: “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.” This came in the aftermath of unconfirmed reports that US intelligence had learned that Pyongyang has produced miniaturised nuclear warheads that can be mounted on a missile.
Coupled with the fact that it now has long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) capable of reaching the United States, the latest unconfirmed intelligence is certainly worrisome. However, through the retaliatory threat of unleashing “fire and fury like the world has never seen”, thereby clearly implying a nuclear strike, Trump’s statement may turn out to be one too soon.
Rather than feeling chastised, North Korea seems to feel emboldened as its staterun Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) issued several statements, including the one that said the government was “carefully examining” plans to launch missiles at the US-controlled island of Guam in the Pacific Ocean. The island is a greatly significant US strategic outpost in the Asia-Pacific region, 28 per cent of which is occupied by the military. There are currently 6,000 U.S. military personnel stationed there and there are plans to add another 5,000 marines by 2022.
A day after the US president’s “fire and fury” threat, Pyongyang upped the ante, calling it a “load of nonsense” on August 9. It went a step further by issuing an even more specific threat to fire four missiles that it said would land within 40 kilometers of Guam as a sort of
A day after the US president’s“fire and fury” threat, Pyongyang upped the ante, calling it a “load of nonsense” on August 9. It went a step further by issuing an even more specific threat to fire four missiles that it said would land within 40 kilometers of Guam as a sort of a shot across the bow.
a shot across the bow.
That Pyongyang intensified its original threat barely 24 hours later in the face of the unprecedented warning from the US president speaks of the imprudence of his response. It is the kind of ultimatum that has to be backed with action without which Washington will have no next step as Pyongyang continues to ratchet up its aggression. Kim Jong-Un considers nuclear weapons as his only guarantee of survival in the face of mounting international pressure on him. He is not going to give those up, no matter what the international community might