On Friday, September 8, North Korea conducted yet another nuclear weapons test. Our reaction was much the same—we condemned their actions and flapped our tongues uselessly about how they’re going against U.N. sanctions. Let me share a secret with you: North Korea doesn’t care.
As long as we continue to only condemn their actions verbally ‑ as long as we refuse to take any sort of action against them ‑ they don’t care whether or not we approve of their nuclear testing. We are their enemies; they have never seen it any other way. For them, the Korean war was for the unification of the Koreas and against the United States—and that war still isn’t over.
How long will we sit back, wagging our fingers at them like they’re a naughty child who pushed their friend into the mud on the playground? North Korea is not a naughty child. The country may not have all of the technological capabilities that the U.S. does, but it sure is trying its best to ensure that it will. The most recent test is estimated to have had two-thirds of the explosive power of the bomb that was detonated over Hiroshima, Japan. That weapon destroyed 90 percent of the city and resulted in 80,000 immediate deaths. How much longer can we assume that they are incapable of reaching their goals? What evidence do we have that they are unwilling to utilize the weapons they build?
North Korea is not a child, and the situation is not a joke. The country is led by a dictator who, quite frankly, is clinically insane and incredibly cruel if one took into account all of facts and evidence. Kim Jong Un has no qualms oppressing his own people through starvation, Nazi-style concentration camps and public execution. This is a man who kills on a mass scale simply to show that he can – because he can. A man crazy enough to not only kill his own citizens but to kill his own officials for nodding off during a meeting…by way of anti-aircraft artillery. He’s crazy, and not in a funny way.
CNN announced that experts believe North Korea could have as many as 16 nuclear weapons, and North Korea claims that the version tested most recently can be put on their ballistic missiles. Whether or not that’s true at this point, they do have a ballistic missile program as well as missiles that can be launched by submarines. They have demonstrated a 500km (300 miles) range for their submarine-launched ballistic missiles. Half of the U.S. population lives in coastal areas within that range.
“I think before long they are going to have a nuclear warhead on a missile, and I think we have to look very carefully and see what we’re going to do,” said Christopher Hill, the former U.S. Ambassador, to CNN reporters.
So do we really want to risk treating North Korea like the playground’s naughty yet harmless child? Eventually, that child will grow up, and at this rate, we won’t realize it until it stands up and pushes us into the mud.
Hill also suggested to CNN that rather than point fingers at each other, China and the U.S. need to get together for talks and discuss what “direct means we can take to either slow [North Korea’s nuclear program] down or kill it.”
When he was confronted about his statement, Hill clarified that he means we should resort to military action if we have enough international support, and while Americans are currently in a mindset that says “avoid conflict at all costs,” avoiding it is unrealistic. We must bear in mind that “all costs” includes the possibility of North Korea attacking us as soon as it can.
Kim Jong Un is not afraid of our empty threats, and to be honest I wouldn’t be either. Our job, then, is to heave our country’s gargantuan bulk from the ground and bare our teeth; because while he’s not afraid of our empty words, he should be afraid of what we can do.