North Korean foreign ministry officials think it’s against the country’s interest to nuke the U. S.
North Korean officials are taking the possibility of conflict with the U. S. seriously, but the first strike won’t come from them, a Russian expert who recently visited Pyongyang wrote in 38 North, a U. S.-based North Korea monitoring website.
Alexander Vorontsov, a scholar who holds several teaching and research posts, including head of Korean and Mongolian Studies Department at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Moscow-based Russian Academy of Sciences, visited the country in mid-November and met with foreign ministry officials and diplomats.
North Korea observed a six-week break in missile launches between September 15 and November 29, but the prospect of war with the U. S., who held a series of joint military drills with South Korea in that period, never stopped preoccupying the officials Vorontsov spoke to.
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“In their eyes, the Pentagon is rehearsing elements of a coordinated military operation one step at a time,” Vorontsov wrote.
According to him, North Koreans officials believe the U. S. public opinion is inching closer to supporting a preemptive strike because they fear Pyongyang would attack the U. S. as soon as it had the opportunity to do so—a serious misperception, one diplomat told Vorontsov.
“It would be suicidal to attack the USA first and especially with nuclear weapons. We understand that it would be the last day of our country,” the unnamed diplomat said, in Vorontsov’s words.
This photo taken on November 29,2017 and released on November 30,2017 by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) shows launching of the Hwasong-15 missile which is capable of reaching all parts of the U. S. North Korean officials don’t think it’s in the country’s best interests to strike the U. S. first, a Russian expert was recently told while in Pyongyang. KCNA via KNS/AFP/Getty Images
North Korea’s state-controlled media and propaganda have often threatened nuclear strikes on the U. S. mainland and the territory of Guam, but according to the North Koreans experts Vorontsov spoke to, what the country wants to achieve via the development of nuclear weapons is leveraging the playing field with the U. S.
“They expressed bewilderment over why the political establishment in the US is unwilling to ask itself a very simple question: even if North Korea does develop the capability to target the continental US with nuclear weapons, why would it launch such weapons if it would result in the destruction of North Korea? These weapons are being developed to preserve the survival of North Korea,” Vorontsov reported.
In a departure from previous statements expressing skepticism about talks with North Korea, at a press conference on Wednesday President Donald Trump shrugged off media reports indicating the White House was debating the possibility of a preemptive strike and instead expressed satisfaction with the first inter-Korean talks in two years held this week .
“We have certainly problems with North Korea but a lot of good talks are going on right now – a lot of good energy… I like it very much,” the president said, quoted in The Guardian .
Trump also repeated his intention of achieving “peace through strength” first mentioned in a speech to South Korean lawmakers in November, a motto echoeing an adage dating back to Ancient Rome that says “If you want peace, prepare for war.”
While from Vorontsov’s account it remains unclear whether North Koreans is serious about peace, they say they are ready for any eventuality. “Pyongyang… is not bluffing when it says that ‘only one question remains: when will war break out?’,” he wrote, adding that North Korean officials told him soldiers as so prepared they “have long been sleeping without removing their boots.”
