Here’s what the media isn’t telling you about North Korea’s recent missile tests.
Last Monday, the DPRK fired a Hwasong-12 intermediate-range ballistic missile over Japan’s Hokkaido Island. The missile landed in the waters beyond the island harming neither people nor property.
The media immediately condemned the test as a “bold and provocative act” that showed the North’s defiance of UN resolutions and “contempt for its neighbors.” President Trump sharply criticized the missile test saying:
“Threatening and destabilizing actions only increase the North Korean regime’s isolation in the region and among all nations of the world. All options are on the table.”
What the media failed to mention was that, for the last three weeks, Japan, South Korea and the US have been engaged in large-scale joint-military drills on Hokkaido Island and in South Korea. These needlessly provocative war games are designed to simulate an invasion of North Korea and a “decapitation” operation to remove (Re: Kill) the regime.
North Korea’s supreme leader, Kim Jong-un has asked the US repeatedly to end these military exercises, but the US has stubbornly refused. The US reserves the right to threaten anyone, anytime and anywhere even right on their doorstep. It’s part of what makes the US exceptional….The US has a bad case of don't do what I do but what I tell you to do. The US is provoking not only North Korea militarily, but also China, Russia, and Iran. But the US considers these countries preparing to defend themselves to be an unacceptable provocation and national security threat.
In any event, Kim has no choice but to stand firm. If he shows any sign of weakness, he knows he’s going to end up like Saddam and Gaddafi. And that, of course, is what’s driving the hyperbolic rhetoric; the North wants to avoid the Gaddafi scenario at all cost. (BTW, the reason Kim has threatened to fire missiles at the waters surrounding Guam is because Guam is the home of Anderson Airforce Base which is the point-of-origin for the B-1B nuclear-capable bombers that have been making threatening flyovers on the Korean Peninsula for some time now. The North feels like it has to respond to that existential threat.
Wouldn’t it help if the media mentioned that fact or does it better serve their agenda to make it look like Kim is barking mad by lashing out against the ‘totally innocent’ United States, a country that only seeks to preserve the peace wherever it goes?...To what end?
Bottom line: The North is ready to deal. They want negotiations. They want to end the war. They want to put this whole nightmare behind them and get on with their lives. But Washington won’t let them because Washington likes the status quo. Washington wants to be a permanent feature in South Korea so it can encircle Russia and China with lethal missile systems and expand its geopolitical grip bringing the world closer to nuclear Armageddon.
That’s what Washington wants, and that’s why the crisis on the peninsula will continue to boil.Counterpunch
What the Media isn’t Telling You About North Korea’s Missile Tests
Mike Whitney
13 comments:
Good article.
This makes sense rather than the mad Kim Jong-un behaving recklessly. The media try to paint NK as crazy and evil anti Western communists but but even if a country had a crazed leader its ruling class and military would not let its leader seriously endanger all their lives and their country's existence for long. This would be like a chiwawa taking on a hundred bears. And the media never takes info account the history of NK of how Japan and then the US wrecked havoc on the country.
Couldn't agree more with this article.
So if NK does military training then we can shoot missiles over them?
There is no upper limit to national air space but the trajectory of a ballistic missile high enough to be similar to satellites passing over. I haven't seen anyone arguing that the NK missile test violated Japanese air space. To the contrary, the argument is that it would be unreasonable to argue that a nation is sovereign in its air space without limit. However, at this point, there is no international standard on vertical sovereignty.
BTW, this brings up the issue of whether a sovereign can destroy satellites of another country passing over it in space. Certainly this would happen in case of hostilities. For example, US command & control is dead in the water without the satellites.
The truth is that no one wants to end the status quo, neither USA or allies, nor China, nor NK, nor SK.
No one wants to invade NK or remove the current regime and pay the price of reunification and/or the massive humanitaria crisis that would follow (even if nuclear attacks could be avoided on both sides and it was just a traditional war).
And a peaceful solution is also unlikely because NK leadership survival is at stake and USA does not want to abandon their bases, as the article points out (just as they won't leave occupied nations of Germany and Japan after decades of the war ending).
It's a mess, and will stay like that. Is all posing at this point, and probably Kim trying to extort the international community some sort of aid or sanction removal. It's also the possibility that Trump sees this as an opportunity to get some wins after months of losing on every front to build political capital and that's why he is playing along, but starting any sort of preventive conflict unilaterally would be the end of his presidency so that's out of question for now.
You got it Matt, only a complete nitwit or anti-US bigot (likely both) would equate military exercises within one's own or an ally's borders (something their beloved Czar Putin does on a regular basis -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Military_exercises_involving_Russia )
- with shooting an announced nuclear-capable missile over a claimed enemy's national territory. Adding insult-to-injury is comparing such a missile to orbiting satellites.
Have the bright lights here ever considered the other possibility -
http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/foreign-policy/349208-north-korea-may-actually-want-war
- or are they too wedded to the notion that people/cultures on the other side of the world just lack that certain kind of strategic capability - another form of the bigotry?
Bob,
Hopefully the NK people are under estimating our capabilities... and over estimating theirs...
They might take a shot at us and we might be able to massive retaliate before they can figure out what happened...
Pretty disappointing to see the lowly state of China and Russia soft power in this situation...
The DPRK doesn't want war, they want to avoid another war. In the last one they lost 1/3 of their population. The effect of this on their culture cannot be dismissed any more than the FACT that the US has rejected every DPRK attempt at a peace treaty for the last 64 years. That we only have a cease fire agreement with a country that we bombed back to the Stone Age more than half a century ago is absurd. But it has effectively destabilized a portion of Asia and 'justified' US military ventures and arms sales - especially THAAD.
Matt Russia has subtantially increased trade with NK last months/years. Is possible they are behind any substantial gains in the programs they are pursuing.
They dont want war, Kim is well aware that's gambling his own life and the collapse of the regime.
China's military has publicly stated that they will not allow war in the DPRK.
Massive saber rattling is just an excuse to drive further profits to the MIC, which all go up in smoke if there are mushroom clouds. That's the problem with playing Chicken.
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