With the rising tension in the Korean Peninsula in recent months, many have wondered if North Korea could actually hit the United States with a nuclear warhead. This question remains unanswered, but recent tests have proved that they would be able to hit our allies in Japan and South Korea. What is encouraging about this scenario is that China has seemingly taken the side of the United States in solving the North Korea problem.
For years, the North Koreans have been testing missiles and expanding their nuclear arsenal. Recently, their tests have been failing. This is encouraging to hear. An especially encouraging piece of news came out when former British politician Malcolm Rifkind spoke about the possibility of the United States hacking North Korea’s most recent missile test to make it fail. He went on to say that we shouldn’t get our hopes up for this result every time, but it may have worked here. I hope that we will be able to do this for future tests, too.
Whether the most recent missile launch failure was because of the United States or not, North Korea is not going away. I don’t think that they are going to go quietly into their good night. The North Korean people have been brainwashed by their leaders into thinking that the outside world despises their entire existence. I would like to think that the average North Korean person is no different than you or me, but the conditions of their upbringing have brought a deep disdain for our country. This is troublesome and I think that we need to deal with this problem as soon as possible.
The current leader of the country is Kim Jong-un. He took over as supreme leader of the country when his father died in 2011. Since that time, I have not seen a leader who has been, for lack of a better word, as ridiculous as he has been. Kim Jong-un has continued to trick his people into believing that he and his family are gods.
While some of the things he said may be comical, the threat is real. What President Donald Trump has done so far seems to work and I am very happy to see it. Rerouting the USS Carl Vinson to be near the Korean Peninsula shows them that this time, we are not going to sit around and impose sanction after sanction. Trump is showing the world that the United States is not here to play any more games with this crazy dictator.
Arguably the most important thing that Trump has done so far is getting China on our side. This new trust and friendship comes after Trump met with President Xi Jinping earlier this month. Trump was actually having dinner with the Chinese leader when the United States bombed Syria, possibly showing that the new administration is adamant on sticking to its word.
The Chinese have long been known as allies, of sorts, to the North Korean people. They are the leading trade partner to the North Koreans, even after sanctions were imposed. If the Chinese people agreed to trade less with the North Koreans, we may find a solution. I say this because of the new and improved relations between the Chinese and American leaders. I hope that President Xi works with the United States to help because we all know that President Trump would love to open more trade deals.
It is a rough fact, but Kim Jong-un will be responsible for the deaths of millions of his own people if China stops trade, surely starting a new famine in the country. North Korea has already gone through periods of famine where their people were not being fed. I hope it does not come to that again. I hope that Jong-un is smart enough to realize that giving up the nuclear arsenal is more important than killing his own people.
I do not think we should enter direct, large scale military conflict in North Korea. For now, the best route is the one that Trump is currently taking. If we keep up the shows of strength and work with China, we may find a solution. We will not find a solution by imposing outside sanctions that are not taken seriously by anyone involved.
However, if the North Koreans do end up launching a nuclear warhead, there is one path we can take: going back to war in Korea. I believe that our top leaders will be able to get this figured out before it gets to this point, but we need to be ready for anything. An attack on the United States or its allies will most certainly lead to the end of the North Korean regime forever.
These next few weeks will be telling for the Trump administration. If he handles the North Korean problem like he did after the chemical attack in Syria, we may win back the respect of countries around the world that have seen weak foreign policies since the Bush administration.
