The news wires lit up last night with news North Korea tested a hydrogen bomb. If true, North Korea possessing the technology to create a thermo-nuclear weapon would be troubling to say the least. However, the far greater threat will come from what North Korea does with the technology.
Let’s be clear, if then President Bill Clinton had not allowed North Korea to develop nuclear weapons we wouldn’t be in the mess. However, Clinton was completely wrong about North Korea and we are paying the price for his strategic miscalculation. I don’t personally believe North Korea has the capability or will to directly attack the United States, but I do believe the hermit kingdom would sell the technology to anyone and this is why we need to be worried. We already know North Korea has transferred nuclear technology to places like Pakistan, Iran, and Syria, but the technology was of limited value since not even North Korea at the time had mastered the bomb making process. Now, over a decade later, North Korea has improved the yield of their bombs to the point they are approaching par with the bombs dropped over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The world has also become much more dangerous and unstable so the market for nuclear technology has considerably grown.
As such, I assess the proliferation danger from North Korea’s improving nuclear weapons technology to be significant. I just wrote a piece this week detailing how the Middle East is now involved in a covert nuclear arms race. This will only accelerate the timeline and increase the stakes. If we are to get ahead of this, and we need to, we need to draw hard lines and stick to them with North Korea. As much as we all would like to see North Korea implode and a coup take down their dear leader, it isn’t going to happen how we want. If anything, North Korea will be forced to open its doors to more of the world and become stronger not weaker. We must stop all aid to the country and pressure China into reigning in North Korea’s inbred nutcase of a leader. North Korea is truly an unstable threat that absolutely should never have been allowed to obtain nuclear weapons. However, the milk has been spilt. My recommendation is to inform China that North Korea must destroy its nuclear weapons capability within 60 days or we will dust off General Douglas MacArthur’s war plan for execution. North Korea is a ticking time bomb that will not get better with time. The longer we postpone finishing the communists off, the more Americans will unnecessarily have to die. For everyone’s sake, I hope I am wrong on this assessment.
By Guiles Hendrik
January 6, 2016
