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It's time to take Kim Jong Un and his nuclear threats seriously

35 Comments
By Sung-Yoon Lee

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1 tubby nuke would result in his whole country going to the stone age. Jingle jangle went the sabre.

2 ( +7 / -5 )

There was a time during the Clinton era when North Korea was amenable to giving up its nuclear ambitions in return for security guarantees from the US. There was a thaw in relations between US and North Korea which culminated in the then Secretary of State Madeleine Albright visiting Pyongyang.

That was the time when North Korea could have been reasoned with to some extent.

However, hard liners in the Bush administration including John Bolton scuttled those efforts and gave North Korea an incentive to accelerate their efforts to develop nuclear weapons. North Korea was provided material support and technical knowhow by A.Q. Khan, the father of Pakistan’s nuclear program.

In the meantime the US continued to provide billions in aid and weapons to Pakistan even as it knew of Pakistan’s duplicity.

The book Meltdown by ex-CNN journalist Mike Chinoy tells the whole story for anyone who cares to read.

Security Council members Russia and China, which supported previous U.N. sanctions following North Korean missiles and nuclear tests

Both China and Russia supported sanctions against North Korea after it conducted its first nuclear test in 2006, so the US can’t really blame them for shielding North Korea when it itself treats Pakistan, the real rogue nation behind North Korea’s nuclear status, as a major non-NATO ally.

6 ( +8 / -2 )

If you accept the author's premise that Kim is a strategic leader that must be taken seriously, and that his goal is to unify the Korean peninsula, then it should also follow that he would not use nukes, because such actions would only take him further from his goal. Threatening to use nukes, however, can be very effective, as evidenced by this author quaking in his boots.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

NK is all bluster. Leave it alone and continue all sanctions indefinitely with no chance of removing them. Kim thinks he will get them all removed by having nuclear weapons and threatening to use them. Starting a nuclear conflict guarantees he dies. His only guarantee of continued existence is to never ever use them.

Time the world went about it's business as usual, including cooperative military drills and exercises and ignores North Korean threats. Let him waste money firing missiles worth hundreds of thousands of dollars for each missile. The brinkmanship will sway nobody.

Say nothing, do nothing, just keep the sanctions applied. Sooner or later they will realise their demands, threats and harsh language is getting no response, not even reported in the West and they will then retry negotiations. Like a dog barking at the moon and the moon ignores the dog. This is not news it is situation normal. Until it changes, ignore them.

-2 ( +3 / -5 )

No! It’s time to take him down!

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

You people will at the mercy of Kim,the US has no first strike policy against NK, meaning if Tokyo is nuked, Japanese are at the mercy of the US to respond,the military do not have , unless giving orders from civilian command,all you people saying attack,this just your grand delusional of the hold Kim have on you,the US can respond in multiple ways,while Kim bluster,the US can flatten Kim in one strike

-8 ( +0 / -8 )

No. No it's not.

There will be no nuclear war.

The central banks won't allow it.

Just stop the hype for the non-thinking.

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

South Korea should have relevant information on North Korea and will have full support from the USA, Japan, Taiwan in case of proactive defensive actions. Kim Jong-un has demonstrated consistently that he is an insane psychopath to be neutralized as soon as possible for the benefit of the mankind.

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

Predictable choice (again).

JT, do you ever select articles which present views outside of the conservative narrative?- It would make for a more balanced, informed, and interesting experience. 

Luckily EvilBuddha brought in some info outside of the same old, broken record diatribe.

0 ( +4 / -4 )

At least have a leader that doesn’t look like he permanently lives at mr donuts!!!

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

Yes! It's time to take Kim Jong Un seriously, World. Notice the growth of his double chin? It looks as if as if it's going to double up.

-4 ( +2 / -6 )

Japanese,do not understand American, American generally will not confront , anybody that they will come under the short end of the stick,and their are some American that will confront anybody,they need to be confronted,that Japanese should tread lightly toward any American , because you do not know the type of American,you are dealing with

-5 ( +0 / -5 )

Kim's RED BUTTON should be labeled "PRESS TO END DPRK." A leaked US operations plan (OPLAN) from the previous administration described the use of 80 nuclear weapons against the DPRK. Because the north is so heavily armed and such a short range from S. Korea it is necessary to act very quickly and decisively if Kim attacks his neighbor. There's really no way to prevent Kim from doing a first strike. All we can do is try to deter him. But, he won't be making a second strike.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

It's way past high time this repugnant dynasty is taken down - this tyrannical despotic family have made the lives of ordinary North Korean people a total misery for decades, with vast numbers of deaths caused by their extremely repressive regime.

Surely there must be a way of either creating a cyber-attacking method of disabling every piece of hardware he has, or by secret-infiltration by an 'elimination-squad' in the SAS or SEALS tradition - No big announcements or threats, just quietly and stealthily excising the problem. The rest of the world would breathe a huge collective sigh of relief, and the North Korean people could look forward to a brighter and normal future.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

He’s playing Putin’s game.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

It's quite simple.

Kim gets the first move. If he ever fires off a real nuke, it's over. Until then, just deal with other problems.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Decades of the continuing cycle NK has always followed.

And “everyone” continues to allow the cycle to go on.

So here we are ….

0 ( +1 / -1 )

When I got to the second sentence I rolled my eyes. Nuclear-capable missile "blasts"? They were launches.

'Blasts' in the same sentence as "nuclear" and "missile" suggests that a nuclear weapon was detonated.

A writer needs to hook the reader in the beginning of a piece, but this phraseology is over the top and deceptive.

It made me stop reading any further.

4 ( +4 / -0 )

Japan is the weakest link,in any adversaries attack,a lion usually seperate the weak from the herd and mount an attack,

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

For the World to take on Kim Jong Un seriously is to be conned by the greatest Con Man the World has ever seen. KJU wants attention. KJU

knows that, threatening the world with The End Of The World with KJU's

favourite nuclear play-thing will get KJU all the attention from the world KJU daily and nightly dreams of.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

A peaceful world is not good for politicians, democratic or otherwise.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Stop scaremongering. This usually happens when the government are unpopular and need to divert attention elsewhere.

This is political theatre. One live firework hitting SK or JP and the US would erase the Kim regime and every military site in NK in a matter of hours. Kim isn't stupid. He likes being alive, being a dictator and cheese. He won't commit suicide that easily. He just wants attention.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

GB,the US do not have a first strike for foreigner,only reserve for American protection,if threatened the US public will demand one

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

It's time to take Kim Jong Un and his nuclear threats seriously

No it isn't.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Still it’s more something hypothetical. He’s obviously got rockets and they are sophisticated enough to lift off and fly, but that’s no proven fact that they possess or those rockets are equipped with nuclear warheads there. Instead of that big brainwashed psychiatry NK the ‘West’ should more fear internal problems like divided societies, wokeness, lacking innovations, strong de-industrialization tendencies due to wrong DX, GX and climate change ideology, very one-sided wealth distribution and all such. That fatty there will calm down or escalate randomly, that’s why it’s of no use to waste any or too much thoughts on that lost area.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

""I believe Kim must be taken seriously. He is deadly serious about completing his grandfather’s and father’s mission of reunification of the Korean peninsula. It is the dynasty’s “supreme national task,” and there is little to suggest that Kim won’t resort to any length to make that happen""

If little kim decides to make this move he will have NOTHING left to REUNIFY.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

The title of the article says it is time to take Kim seriously.

He has always been taken seriously by Japan, South Korea, and the USA. He has to know that while he may be safe from an unprovoked attack, if he were to provoke his neighbors with nuclear attacks of his own, the results would be catastrophic for him. I do not believe that the bordering nations would just sit by and not respond.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Give to NK some containers with food and medicine and the Fatty will calm down..

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

The weapons makers need countries like Nth Korea to justify building more weapons….

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Simply more media hype, the real threat has always been right under your noses and it isn't North Korea.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

The war mongering against the Democratic People's Republic of Korea should be stopped. Japan used to be inspired by Korea in ancient times, and should be inspired by the DPRK in this modern epoch as well. Please do not erase my comment, even if you disagree with it.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

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