Waiting For Another Nuclear Test With Hands Tied
North Korea appears ready for another nuclear test, ABC News reports quoting U.S. defense officials. The U.S. broadcaster quoted a high-ranking Defense Department official as saying he believed North Korea had made all of the preparations needed to conduct another nuclear test without warning. Our government is saying North Korea will not immediately do this but is unable to rule it out either.
North Korea was widely expected to use the threat of another nuclear test as a negotiating card. It will have judged by now that it had gained the strategic upper hand over South Korea and the U.S. with the first, and it seems Pyongyang actually believes its nuclear threats are softening Washington’s stance. It also seems the North is seeking to use this momentum to conduct another nuclear test and cross the red line to emerge as a full-fledged nuclear power. North Korea believes it can gain the greatest bargaining power if it drives tensions on the Korean Peninsula to the maximum. If this happens and North Korea’s possession of nuclear weapons becomes an established fact, we will be one step closer to calamity.
The situation requires prodigious decision from our country. A prodigious mindset precedes a prodigious decision. The start of such a prodigious mindset is to be willing to let North Korea know just how large a price it will pay if it conducts a nuclear test. But over the months since North Korea’s first nuclear test, the attitude of our government was just the opposite.
China, though calling itself a brotherly nation of North Korea, launched sanctions despite being accused by the North of betraying its trust, and even European countries and Australia are taking part in international sanctions. But the South Korean government has been trying to distance itself from these moves with one excuse after another. All of a sudden, South Korea is no longer a part of the core group of countries that relied on each other in dealing with the North Korean nuclear threat.
The president said the military equilibrium between North and South Korea will not be thrown off balance even if North Korea has nuclear weapons. A veteran South Korean military official, who served as army chief of staff during this administration, called the president’s comments “ludicrous.” There’s more. The unification minister proposed the unique theory that North Korea’s poverty must be addressed to deal with the root cause of the nuclear threat. Watching the mindless conduct of this administration, it doesn’t take a genius to see that it wants a second inter-Korean summit far more than South Korea’s national security. North Korea’s firm resolve to acquire nuclear weapons will bring an equally firm resolve from the U.S. to keep that from happening. Does South Korea’s laid-back attitude fit in this picture?
