North Korea’s ultimatum to America - Caroline Glick
Sunday’s test, together with North Korea’s recent tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the continental US, was a direct threat to US cities.
In other words, the current confrontation isn’t about US superpower status in Asia, and the credibility of US deterrence or the capabilities of US military forces in the Pacific. The confrontation is now about the US’s ability to protect the lives of its citizens.
[I]f the Trump administration punts North Korea’s direct threat to attack US population centers with nuclear weapons to the UN Security Council, it will communicate profound weakness to its allies and adversaries alike.
[T]he US’s security guarantees, which form the basis of its global power and its alliance system are on the verge of becoming completely discredited.
If you appease an enemy on behalf of an ally then you aren’t an ally. And eventually your alliance become empty of all meaning.
If the US strikes North Korea in a credible manner and successfully diminishes its capacity to physically threaten the US, America will have taken the first step towards rebuilding its alliances in Asia.
On the other hand, if the current round of hostilities does not end with a significant reduction of North Korea’s offensive capabilities, either against the US or its allies, then the US will be hard pressed to maintain its posture as a Pacific power. So long as Pyongyang has the ability to directly threaten the US and its allies, US strategic credibility in East Asia will be shattered.
[U]nless the North Korean nuclear arsenal is obliterated, Pyongyang’s nuclear triumphalism will precipitate a spasm of nuclear proliferation in Asia and in the Middle East. The implications of this for the US and its allies will be far reaching.
Not only can Japan and South Korea be reasonably expected to develop nuclear arsenals. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and other inherently unstable Arab states can be expected to develop or purchase nuclear arsenals in response to concerns over North Korea and its ally Iran with its nuclear weapons program linked to Pyongyang’s.
In other words, if the US does not respond in a strategically profound way to Pyongyang now, it will not only lose its alliance system in Asia, it will see the rapid collapse of its alliance system and superpower status in the Middle East.
Israel, for one, will be imperiled by the sudden diffusion of nuclear power.
If the US does not directly defeat North Korea in a clear-cut way now, its position as a superpower in Asia and worldwide will be destroyed and its ability to defend its own citizens will be called into question with increasing frequency and lethality.
[Jerusalem Post]
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UPDATES:
Iran Can Be Where North Korea Is in a Short Time - Yonah Jeremy Bob
"What people need to understand is that Iran can be where North Korea is" in a short time, Dr. Emily Landau, an expert at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University, told the Jerusalem Post. To prevent this from happening, the world must devise "a strategy to increase pressure on Iran" with a combination of increased, truly biting sanctions, isolation, and the threat of a military option, she said.
Landau said there have always been concerns about North Korea transferring nuclear weapons technology to Iran, but after its latest nuclear test, which registered as far more powerful than past tests, that could mean sharing hydrogen bomb technology.
(Jerusalem Post)
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Iran Has Studied North Korea's Playbook - Anthony Ruggiero
North Korea authored the playbook now being used by Iran to fleece the U.S. and our allies. And if the U.S. fails to neutralize the North Korean threat, Iran will notice how the U.S. buckles in the face of nuclear pressure.
Iran has already learned a number of damaging lessons from North Korea. First, cheating on nuclear deals is permitted. President Bill Clinton announced the 1994 Agreed Framework as a deal that would "freeze and then dismantle its nuclear program," but Pyongyang violated the agreement when it started a covert uranium enrichment program. Washington then negotiated the 2005 Joint Statement, but the Kim regime built a nuclear reactor in Syria during the negotiations, and the Bush administration removed North Korea from the state sponsors of terrorism list in 2008.
The writer, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, was a nonproliferation adviser to the U.S. government.
(Weekly Standard)
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Sunday’s test, together with North Korea’s recent tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the continental US, was a direct threat to US cities.
In other words, the current confrontation isn’t about US superpower status in Asia, and the credibility of US deterrence or the capabilities of US military forces in the Pacific. The confrontation is now about the US’s ability to protect the lives of its citizens.
[I]f the Trump administration punts North Korea’s direct threat to attack US population centers with nuclear weapons to the UN Security Council, it will communicate profound weakness to its allies and adversaries alike.
[T]he US’s security guarantees, which form the basis of its global power and its alliance system are on the verge of becoming completely discredited.
If you appease an enemy on behalf of an ally then you aren’t an ally. And eventually your alliance become empty of all meaning.
If the US strikes North Korea in a credible manner and successfully diminishes its capacity to physically threaten the US, America will have taken the first step towards rebuilding its alliances in Asia.
On the other hand, if the current round of hostilities does not end with a significant reduction of North Korea’s offensive capabilities, either against the US or its allies, then the US will be hard pressed to maintain its posture as a Pacific power. So long as Pyongyang has the ability to directly threaten the US and its allies, US strategic credibility in East Asia will be shattered.
[U]nless the North Korean nuclear arsenal is obliterated, Pyongyang’s nuclear triumphalism will precipitate a spasm of nuclear proliferation in Asia and in the Middle East. The implications of this for the US and its allies will be far reaching.
Not only can Japan and South Korea be reasonably expected to develop nuclear arsenals. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and other inherently unstable Arab states can be expected to develop or purchase nuclear arsenals in response to concerns over North Korea and its ally Iran with its nuclear weapons program linked to Pyongyang’s.
In other words, if the US does not respond in a strategically profound way to Pyongyang now, it will not only lose its alliance system in Asia, it will see the rapid collapse of its alliance system and superpower status in the Middle East.
Israel, for one, will be imperiled by the sudden diffusion of nuclear power.
If the US does not directly defeat North Korea in a clear-cut way now, its position as a superpower in Asia and worldwide will be destroyed and its ability to defend its own citizens will be called into question with increasing frequency and lethality.
[Jerusalem Post]
*
UPDATES:
Iran Can Be Where North Korea Is in a Short Time - Yonah Jeremy Bob
"What people need to understand is that Iran can be where North Korea is" in a short time, Dr. Emily Landau, an expert at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University, told the Jerusalem Post. To prevent this from happening, the world must devise "a strategy to increase pressure on Iran" with a combination of increased, truly biting sanctions, isolation, and the threat of a military option, she said.
Landau said there have always been concerns about North Korea transferring nuclear weapons technology to Iran, but after its latest nuclear test, which registered as far more powerful than past tests, that could mean sharing hydrogen bomb technology.
(Jerusalem Post)
*
Iran Has Studied North Korea's Playbook - Anthony Ruggiero
North Korea authored the playbook now being used by Iran to fleece the U.S. and our allies. And if the U.S. fails to neutralize the North Korean threat, Iran will notice how the U.S. buckles in the face of nuclear pressure.
Iran has already learned a number of damaging lessons from North Korea. First, cheating on nuclear deals is permitted. President Bill Clinton announced the 1994 Agreed Framework as a deal that would "freeze and then dismantle its nuclear program," but Pyongyang violated the agreement when it started a covert uranium enrichment program. Washington then negotiated the 2005 Joint Statement, but the Kim regime built a nuclear reactor in Syria during the negotiations, and the Bush administration removed North Korea from the state sponsors of terrorism list in 2008.
The writer, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, was a nonproliferation adviser to the U.S. government.
(Weekly Standard)
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