SANCTIONS, THREATS…WAR?
by Sharon Rondeau
(Aug. 8, 2017) — On Tuesday afternoon, President Donald Trump issued a warning to the rogue, communist nation of North Korea against “making any more threats to the United States” as evidenced by a series of missile launches over the last several months.
Trump declared that if North Korea does not halt its trajectory toward launching a nuclear weapon, the U.S. would respond “with fire and fury like the world has never seen.”
On Monday evening, Trump tweeted that “After many years of failure, countries are coming together to finally address the dangers posed by North Korea. We must be tough & decisive!”
Trump appeared to state that the U.S. would attack North Korea militarily if it does not cease its current behavior, which was reported on Tuesday to include having “miniaturized a nuclear warhead.”
It is believed that North Korea has missiles capable of reaching cities in the U.S. as well as Europe, Asia and the state of Alaska.
Led by dictator Kim Jong-Un, the hermit nation’s people have experienced food shortages and persistent malnutrition. Its prison camps are reported to be places of torture, starvation and unfathomable human misery.
U.S. citizen Otto Warmbier became permanently disabled after visiting North Korea with a tour group and being convicted of attempting to steal a propaganda poster from the hotel in which he was staying. He was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor but was returned to the U.S. in mid-June unresponsive and possibly in a coma.
He died several days after arriving in his home state of Ohio.
In what was Wednesday in North Korea, Jong-Un appeared to respond to Trump’s warning when a military spokesman said that North Korea is considering launching a strike on Guam, where a U.S. military base is located, “once leader Kim Jong Un makes a decision.”
A businessman growing a multi-billion-dollar business in 1999, Trump interviewed with the late Tim Russert about actions the U.S. could take toward North Korea at the time, stating that “First, I’d negotiate.”
Trump predicted that North Korea would soon have “nuclear weapons.” “They’re doing it for a reason,” Trump said, contending that the problem should be solved. “They’re laughing at us; they think we’re a bunch of dummies,” Trump added, claiming that U.S. leadership was not doing enough to deter North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.
On Saturday, the United Nations Security Council voted 15-0 to impose stringent economic sanctions on North Korea with the hope of deterring Jong-Un from taking additional provocative actions.
The sanctions focus on a boycott of North Korean exports, which include seafood, lead, iron ore and coal.
Thus far, Trump’s expectation that China would pressure North Korea to change its behavior has been unfulfilled, although it voted with the Security Council to approve the sanctions.
Another communist country and neighbor to North Korea, China has a significant economic relationship with the rogue regime.
Update, 10:32 p.m. EDT: Fox News has just reported that the U.S. is flying bombers over the Korean Peninsula.
Two obvious thoughts: 1) Give the sanctions time to see if they work, but for how long, who knows? 2) While that is going on in the foreground, it is entirely possible that a larger military coalition is being built in the background. Don’t be surprised if India gets involved. NK and China, in 30 days, could find themselves in a position they did not expect without a single shot having been fired.