How to deal with North Korea
Recently in the news cycle we have heard about North Korea making threats (like they always seem to do) at the United States. Along with this they have also showcased the ability for launching ICBMs and are grandstanding that they have capability for nuclear to some extent. In response, the President of the United States declared rather publicly that if North Korea continues to make these threats he would answer to them with ‘Fire and Fury’. Sure Mr. President, let’s answer a crazy man’s cry for attention by giving him exactly what he wants. I think this may be a really sick way of deflecting from the media coverage of the Russian investigation while trying to rally support for the current administration — in other words, playing the War card. I think it’s on the table, and given the recent popularity ratings being in the toilet, it might make some sense if you were in the current administration.
However I think there is a much better way to deal with the North Korean’s bombastic weapon rattling and that’s through straight up diplomacy. Something this administration seems to know very little of considering the whining the president did over the phone with Mexico with concerns to “building the wall” making him look “terrible”.
Here’s an excerpt of some good old diplomacy — you know, working with neighboring countries for the best benefit of everyone involved and effectively managing international conflict.
The biggest supporters of a provocative North Korea has been the PLA [People’s Liberation Army]. The deep connections between the military leadership in China and in North Korea has really been the mainstay of the relationship. So now all of a sudden new leadership with Xi and his team, and they’re saying to the North Koreans — and by extension to the PLA — no. It is not acceptable.
We don’t need this right now. We’ve got other things going on. So you’re going to have to pull back from your provocative actions, start talking to South Koreans again about the free trade zones, the business zones on the border, and get back to regular order and do it quickly. Now, we don’t care if you occasionally shoot off a missile. That’s good. That upsets the Americans and causes them heartburn, but you can’t keep going down a path that is unpredictable. We don’t like that. That is not acceptable to us.
So I think they’re trying to reign Kim Jong in. I think they’re trying to send a clear message to the North Korean military. They also have a very significant trade relationship with Seoul and they’re trying to reassure Seoul that, you know, we’re now on the case. We couldn’t pay much attention in the last year. We’ve got our own leadership transition. But we’re back focused and
we’re going to try to ensure that this doesn’t get all the rails.So they want to keep North Korea within their orbit. They want to keep it predictable in their view. They have made some rather significant statements recently that they would very much like to see the North Koreans pull back from their nuclear program. Because I and everybody else -and I know you had Leon Panetta here this morning. You know, we all have told the Chinese if [North Korea] continue to develop this missile program and they get an ICBM that has the capacity to carry a small nuclear weapon on it, which is what they’re aiming to do, we cannot abide that. Because they could not only do damage to our treaty allies, namely Japan and South Korea, but they could actually reach Hawaii and the west coast theoretically, and we’re going to ring China with missile defense. We’re going to put more of our fleet in the area. So China, come on. You either control them or we’re going to have to defend against them.
Seems if you could just partner with China and show case how it benefits them to keep their ally North Korea corralled then you can avoid having to enter in to conflict. Yes that’s right, you just read an excerpt from one of the “damning” Clinton leaks from a speech given to Goldman Sachs. Turns out she was actually pretty good at her job as Secretary of State.
To be frank this isn’t the first time North Korea has made statements like this and if you believe some more obscure news outlets along with Clinton herself then North Korea has had some level of capability for a while now. Except it hasn’t been too much of a problem because we’ve had a competant president who practiced diplomacy to ensure the situation never erupted in to an all out war.
To quote Bill Maher, “Who knew? She knew!”
Or, on the other hand, you could try to make an enemy with China by challenging them on trade which would take away the benefit of them supressing North Korea in our favor. That would probably be the dumbest thing you could do. Guess what? Turns out the Trump Team hints at just that.
Let that sink in for a moment. If that doesn’t quite get your blood boiling, there’s always the fact that North Korea has been getting arms from Russia to really get your blood pumpin.
Due to the popularity in comments describing this as “Fake News” we’d like mention that you can read more about Fake News in our other article here:
