US President Donald Trump has just delivered the toughest message yet to North Korea – that he could be forced to ‘totally destroy’ the rogue nation if it didn’t mend its ways. The latest warning, made at the US president’s maiden speech to the United Nations General Assembly, comes after several previous warnings like the famous “fire and fury’ warning made in August which too was meant to scare and rattle the maverick leader of North Korea Kim Jong-un. The world knows that Kim is too depraved (as Trump calls him) to be rattled by such warnings, but since the president has issued the mother of all threats, what is the next step for him? Carry out the threat? Or eat his words and wait for Kim to behave himself?
“The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea,” Trump said in his speech, adding, “if the righteous many do not confront the wicked few, then evil will triumph.” He went further and said the “rocket man is on a suicide mission.”
By issuing such threats and with his choice of words, Trump hasn’t made the North Korean issue any easier. Instead of appreciation, his guns-blazing rhetoric has been received with dismay by diplomats, leaders and by several sections of the world media which found such threats more Kim-like than Trumpian, or more reckless than the man he was targeting. German Chancellor Angela Merkel disagreed with the US president. “I am against such threats. We believe that any kind of military solution is completely deficient and we support diplomatic efforts,” she said. North Korea has already dismissed the threat with scorn, and might be thinking of retaliation with another missile launch.
A military solution should be the final option on North Korea because its consequences are unpredictable when we have leaders like Kim, and also because a rare consensus is emerging in addressing the North Korean threats. The latest United Nations Security Council resolution imposing more sanctions on North Korea is an example. The resolution was passed without veto from China and Russia and with every resolution, which always has more teeth than the previous one, the noose is tightening on Pyongyang. The Kim regime is also groaning under growing international isolation as many countries are downgrading diplomatic relations with it, which could intensify in the coming months. There are also reports that China is piling more pressure on North Korea because a war in the region will be against its interests and so it’s expected to rein in Kim if the North Korean leader prepares to push the final button.
