North Korea now has an ICBM, meaning it can launch attacks as far as Alaska. Some hawks say the U. S. should attack North Korea and depose its regime before Pyongyang develops the ability to launch nuclear missile strikes on the U. S. mainland.
North Korea now has an ICBM, meaning it can launch attacks as far as Alaska. Some hawks say the U. S. should attack North Korea and depose its regime before Pyongyang develops the ability to launch nuclear missile strikes on the U. S. mainland. Others argue military force is not the answer — it will create a humanitarian disaster and lead to levels of fighting the world hasn’t seen in decades. It’s better to bring North Korea to the negotiating table. What do you think?
PERSPECTIVES
Any military attack would likely “trigger one of the worst mass killings in human history.” Around 25,000,000 South Koreans live within artillery range of North Korea. As a deterrence to an invasion, North Korea has thousands of artillery guns pointed at civilian targets, ready to rain destruction at a moment’s notice. It’s estimated around 64,000 people will die on the first day of the bombardment.
With that in mind, these are the four options the U. S. has to deal with North Korea, according to Mark Bowden at The Atlantic:
How to Deal With North Korea
North Korea is not as crazy as people make the hermit kingdom out to be. Yes, it is ruled by a megalomaniac dictator who enforces a cult of personality on his people, but for the most part, North Korea acts as rationally as an isolated military dictatorship. Yes, the country has nukes and it threatens to launch them at just about everyone. But a look at North Korean history shows most of its actions are rational and calculated to deter the U. S. and South Korea.
North Korea knows it doesn’t have any friends.
