Despite the efforts of the last three American presidents, North Korea has continued advancing as a nuclear state. Can Donald Trump rein in the rogue state any better?
In a televised New Year’s Day address to his nation, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un announced his resolve to develop a missile capable of reaching the U. S. mainland.
“We will continue to build up our self-defense capability, the pivot of which is the nuclear forces, and the capability for preemptive strike,” he said.
President-elect Trump responded the next day on Twitter: “North Korea just stated that it is in the final stages of developing a nuclear weapon capable of reaching parts of the U. S. It won’t happen!”
“It’s just a statement of resolve without any indication of how he’s going to prevent it,” said John Delury, an associate professor of Chinese studies at Seoul’s Yonsei University. “And, of course, it’s all about the how.”
The value of all the unpaid labor that North Koreans are forced to perform by their government amounts to around $975 million annually, according to a new report by Open North Korea, a Seoul-based NGO.
The report, titled “Sweatshop, North Korea,” estimates that 400,000 people are in the lowest…
The value of all the unpaid labor that North Koreans are forced to perform by their government amounts to around $975 million annually, according to a new report by Open North Korea, a Seoul-based NGO.
The report, titled “Sweatshop, North Korea,” estimates that 400,000 people are in the lowest…
The United States and its allies have tried a variety of tools to prevent North Korea, one of the world’s most isolated countries, from developing and deploying nuclear weapons.
But diplomatic negotiations stalled in 2008, and a series of economic sanctions and aid have at times slowed, but not stopped, North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.
In the 1990s, then-President Clinton helped win agreement to close a North Korean nuclear facility in exchange for aid — a deal that ultimately fell apart. His successor, George W. Bush, sought a change in government in Pyongyang.
The Obama administration has demanded that Pyongyang denuclearize while also trying to get other countries in the region to oppose the country’s efforts.
The strategies haven’t worked. Most security experts now believe North Korea is, in fact, an established nuclear state — perhaps possessing more than a dozen devices. A key question now, analysts such as Delury say, is whether the nation has the tools to deploy the weapons globally.
North Korea has numerous missiles, some of them mobile and outfitted with reengineered Russian technology. America’s allies in the region, such as Japan and South Korea, whose capital is 120 miles from Pyongyang, are already on edge about short- and intermediate-range capabilities.
