WASHINGTON, DC – Dan Weber, president of the Association of Mature American Citizens [AMAC] has issued a statement praising “the resolve of the U.S. under the leadership of President Trump to neutralize the clear and present threat to world peace posed by North Korea [DPRK]. But, it may not be enough to make the country’s strongman Kim Jung Un concede defeat.”
In recent days Kim’s rhetoric has become more belligerent than ever before. He has even threatened to attack the U.S. territory of Guam, home to 160,000 people-the great majority of whom are American citizens, including 7,000 U.S. troops. Just yesterday, the DPRK regime presented a detailed plan to encircle Guam next week with a ring of fire using multiple nuclear-armed missiles.
The solidarity expressed by the international community in condemning bellicose diatribes initiated by Kim should go a long way toward potentially ensuring the war of words does not escalate into a full-fledged nuclear war. China is a particularly important player as Washington Post opinion writer, David Ignatius, recently pointed out, Weber noted.
Ignatius put it this way: “President Trump’s bullying style, even in dealing with trivial matters of domestic politics, obscures the extent to which he has tried to marry U.S. policy on North Korea with that of China. For the most part, he has been surprisingly successful. Beijing and Washington have mostly been aligned, as in this past weekend’s unanimous U.N. Security Council vote in favor of additional sanctions against Pyongyang to punish its continued missile tests.”
Two things are noteworthy about the sanctions the United Nations has imposed on the obstinate Communist nation, Weber pointed out. “The vote to enforce severe economic punishment on North Korea was unanimous. Even China and Russia were on board, although it is hard to know just how far they are willing to go to enforce the sanctions. And, the sanctions, which were proposed and drafted by the US, are designed to deal a devastating blow to the country’s already weak economy by slashing trade revenue by one third. It won’t diminish the lifestyles of the inner circle in Pyongyang. But, how much more can the underfed and undernourished ordinary citizens of North Korea stand.”
Soon after the sanctions were adopted, it became clear that that the DPRK’s leader Kim Jong Un remains determined to turn his postage-stamp nation into a threatening nuclear power, Weber said.
Within a few days of the sanctions being imposed, the North Koreans issued new threats against the U.S. and its allies in the region and backed them up with a mobilization of patrol boats armed with anti-ship cruise missiles. They were spotted by American intelligence agencies and are presumably intended as a warning to U.S. warships in the region.
And, North Korea issued a bizarre statement, saying that “the more desperately the U.S. works to realize its ambition for nuclear dismantlement of the north through maximum pressure and engagement, the more dynamically the DPRK has stepped up diversifying and modernizing the nuclear force before the U.S. and its vassal forces come to their senses.”
Weber said that Kim is a very unstable individual. “He’s like a very dangerous and petulant child. His classmates at boarding school called him unpredictable and explained that he is prone to violence. In fact, he is known to have murdered family members in paranoiac fits of rage. Any reasonable person – friend or foe – would have come to his senses by now and realized that the only choice he has is to put a stop to his war dance. Does he really think that he is dealing with the Obama administration with its timid approach to diplomacy? President Trump has made known that he prefers a peaceful approach to resolving the matter. But, he has shown that he is prepared to deal with the situation in a more forceful manner, if necessary. And, as UN Ambassador Nikki Haley has pointed out, all options are on the table.”
Will the UN sanctions be enough to convince the North Korea to cease and desist? Weber believes that diplomatic pressure is mounting rapidly as evidenced by the 15-0 vote in the UN to enforce strict sanctions on the DPRK. And, he says, if international condemnation of the country’s lawlessness does not move Kim Jung Un to behave, perhaps it might encourage dissidents within the regime to act.
