Seriously wounded North Korean soldiers lie where they fell and wait for medical attention by Navy hospital corpsmen accompanying the Marines in their advance. September 15, 1950.
(Image by (Photo by Sgt. Frank Kerr, USMC)) Details DMCA
Douglas MacArthur said of the Korean War (1950-1953) that "This war will result in a slaughter such as has not been seen in the history of mankind." This was literally the case. The North was razed to the ground, bombed into the Stone Age, napalmed into one long barbecue pit, and then intentionally flooded. By any reasonable measure, the people of North Korea have grounds now to fear for their safety.
Since that time, they have been threatened with nuclear annihilation on multiple occasions. Twice yearly the US conducts military exercises that include the decapitation and occupation of North Korea. Colin Powell threatened a couple of times to "turn North Korea into a charcoal briquette." This is a chilling statement for a country that had 50,000 gallons of napalm dropped on it daily for three years. So despite the arguments that North Korea is totally irrational, it would be more rational to conclude that it is acting out of concern for its survival.
DB: You mentioned the war games, which happen off the coast of Korea twice a year. But there is also a serious move forward by the United States with the "Pacific Pivot." The program was put on steroids by Obama and includes complete domination of the region by land, sea, air and space. Can you talk about some of the new weaponry that might be making the North Koreans and the Chinese a little jumpy?
KJN: China has been surrounded by some 400 military bases. There has also been economic warfare, legal warfare, information warfare, and cyber warfare. This pivot that was put in place by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama involved the installation of THAAD [Terminal High Altitude Area Defense], which is essentially an assault system. South Korea has already installed the THAAD system, through some rather irregular maneuvers, by bypassing the parliament. It did this very rapidly, putting these facts on the ground before the new administration could take office.
The Chinese are most concerned by the radar component of the THAAD system. This radar uses waves on the level of about one inch long. This means that they have a very high resolution and they render the entire nation visible and transparent for US intelligence purposes. This is technology that hasn't been used before and it makes China extraordinarily vulnerable to the US. They want this system removed at any cost.
There were early indications that [newly elected South Korean] President Moon was going to renegotiate the system and perhaps even push it back. But in the wake of this recent launch, he has said that he is going to put in place right away the four additional launches that have been awaiting clearance.
DB: There were recently national elections in South Korea. The new president seemed to be moving left, he seemed more willing to negotiate with the North. But now that is all sort of going by the wayside and Moon is doing the "go along to get along."
KJN: Yes, I think that's a pretty fair assessment. The geopolitical picture is such that he doesn't have a lot of maneuvering room. He did go to Berlin on July 12 and put forward his North Korean doctrine, which was that there was going to be no attempt to force reunification or to force North Korea to collapse, and there would be some friendly gestures, some cultural exchange. So there was some general language of reconciliation and an apparently genuine attempt to deescalate the situation. All of that is put on the back burner now with this recent launch and the strong rhetoric coming out of Washington.
DB: What should we be careful to monitor at this point, as we move toward the brink of war?
Secretary-General António Guterres (left) addresses the Security Council ministerial-level meeting on the nuclear weapon and ballistic missile programs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). At right is Rex W. Tillerson, U.S. Secretary of S
(Image by (UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe)) Details DMCA
KJN: It is anybody's guess at this point because so much of the language has been contradictory. On the one hand there is the viewpoint that the North Koreans are a joke and you don't have to give them anything. All we have to do is besiege them and they will collapse. This was the doctrine known as "strategic patience" during the Obama administration.
The UN ambassador, Nikki Haley, has said that she is not going to go to the Security Council this time because resolutions there are violated with impunity. The rhetorical stance is that Beijing must finally confront Pyongyang. But China's interests regarding North Korea and the interests of the United States are diametrically opposed.
It is foolish to assume that the US will outsource its foreign policy to China when China has opposing interests. That is not going to happen. Furthermore, the Chinese and the Koreans have a relationship that goes back millennia. If you travel to Korea you realize that what you are seeing is Chinese culture preserved in a sediment form.
In a word, we have to watch things very carefully and hope that we don't cross the threshold into even minimal military action. That would have cascading effects that are catastrophic.
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