Washington Eyes a Cold War Strategy Against North Korea

The most important thing about North Korea's nuclear missiles -- other than how deadly they are -- is that China has purposely helped North Korea get them. They have to increase the threats against America and our Asian allies, and to make us beg them for help in dealing such missiles -- help which they have only pretended to give. China is creating this detraction at very time it is rapidly making economic, diplomatic, and military moves to achieve their goal of dominating Earth. China claims it has little control over North Korea's nuclear missiles -- but do you think for one second China would have helped North Korea get missiles, missiles that each could kill tens of millions of people in major Chinese cities like Beijing and Shanghai, unless China though it could control those missiles. Of course not. How stupid it is to even think it. The second most important thing about North Korea's nuclear missiles, is that most of America's news, political, and business elites have avoided any discussion of the above stated "most important thing". It would be a bummer. People don't want to hear it. And it would be bad for business, at least in the short run,. How stupid and short-sighted our democracy's public thinking has become! Unless America's collective thinking becomes more intelligent, quickly, America will almost certainly be a vassal state of China in twenty to thirty years -- one in which Communist thought control will be as strong as it is now in China.

Perhaps one way to really get China to pay attention to stopping North Korean nuclear first strike capability is to quietly let the Chinese leadership know that we in response will supply both the South Korean and Japanese governments with ~10 mid-range, nuclear tipped missiles once North Korea established such capability and that these missiles will be placed provisionally under each respective government's control. If first attacked by North Korea (including massive conventional attack against Seoul and environs) such missiles could *potentially* be used in self-defense. The Chinese can then let North Korea know of this change in the current situation. Such a small number of missiles does not truly threaten China with deep destruction but in part balances a possible future situation where North Korea can threaten Seoul, Tokyo and Washington with a (relatively) small nuclear attack. This removes some of the uncertainty as to whether North Korea will escape essentially unscathed given the doubts as to whether the US will abide by its treaty obligations to both countries if not attacked itself. I think this proliferation threat by the US will quickly focus the Chinese government's attention on finding a way (likely to include US recognition of the North Korean regime) to denuclearize the Korean peninsula as I believe they will be very uncomfortable with the possibility a smallish power can threaten a Chinese city such as Beijing or Shanghai.

Its a shame that our president just doesnt send Kim a piece of the most beautiful chocolate cake ever with a note saying, Have I Got a Deal for You. Kim wants to be seen as a demi-god to his people much like Trump with his fake Time magazine covers. So, offer to cover every roof top in N. Korea with solar panels giving the people free electricity. The people bow down to Kim as some kind of savior, its cheaper for both sides than bombs, and we turn the guy into a corporate type who sees the US as a friend rather than a national enemy. China would hate it if N. Korea suddenly became friends with the US because they use N. Korea to push our buttons. It all starts with a piece of the most beautiful chocolate cake ever.

Fallacious argument based upon an inapplicable historical example. Does anyone see North Korea expanding its empire?

Diplomacy must be exhausted before any other action is considered. "Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent." (Isaac Asimov, Foundation) Negotiate the end of this 64 year armistice, prepare to accept this country into the community of nations. Offer this in exchange for Mr. Kim's agreement to complyMr. Kim may respond positively to respectful talks.

Deterrence during the cold war was not only about mutual assured destruction. U. S. policy was , if russian tanks rolled through the Fulda Gap , West Germany would be destroyed. Strategic deterrence means the destruction of south korea,by the U. S. North Korea cannot achieve any military goal by conventional weaponry. The true danger of a nuclear north Korea is eventually blackmail by a nonstate actor.

The tit-for-tat columns about what will happened when the North Korean's nuclear bombs are about to explode with chagrin somewhere or everywhere in the United States, without warning. The warning might be when the president and his family fly off to Australia or the moon. I am suggesting this because I wrote in another newspaper in New York many years ago, suggesting what could happen if a nuclear bomb exploded in the Columbus Circle. I live within a few blocks of that spot. (Not near from where Trump's NY apartment is.) I am no longer worried about an exploding neutral death within my apartment. I may be able to travel to Australia if I notice the Trump folk en route to a far away distance: as I hope going to. It's much easier than reading over and over the worries of our famed news folks.

I think it may be time for the US to allow South Korea and Japan to have their own nuclear arms. This would mean North Korea could not just wager that the US would not risk its own cities to counter North Korean aggression against those two nations. It would also give China pause in terms of its calculation that a nuclear armed North Korea would not be so bad.

Your so called president should insist on a No First Strike plan from Congress~

A quick solution to Kimski: what do you do with a rabid dog?

The cold war was based in opposing ideologies as much as military weapons. There is no viable ideology behind the current North Korean system. Their ideas of how to run a country and an economy are laughable. The only threat is a few missiles. The North Koreans don't have the capacity or skill to make missiles. They buy the technology from Russian sources based in Ukraine. The sanctions that supposedly punish North Korea have failed. The solution is not military attack, but blockade. We block missile technology from crossing the bridge to China or sea ports and the threat is blocked. Of course we can't get Russia to cooperate, perhaps China can be enticed with some pay off / bribe / coercion to block shipments of technology into North Korea.

Containment worked with the USSR. It could work with the DPRK. Why not try it?

The day NK can incinerate Chicago the American commitments to defend South Korea and, ultimately, Japan are over. We cannot even try to defeat NK in defense of SK and Japan since it is quite clear Kim will nuke the US as soon as it looks like his regime faces that. The prospect of US nuclear retaliation would not deter him, and would pose far too great a risk to the US itself of a more general nuclear war for the US to credibly threaten it, anyway. Kim is within weeks, perhaps, of totally undermining our position in the Far East, no doubt to the great amusement of China and Russia.

Mr. Sanger says, "South Korea may have all the technology and the money, but the North has a purity of purpose, in Mr. Kim’s mind, that will ultimately give it control of the entire Korean Peninsula. And with it, Mr. Kim believes, will come the respect of far larger powers that have been waiting, for decades, for the North to be swept away by forces of history." This latest argument for refusing to accept the reality of a nuclear North Korea designed to deter U.S. hostility, along with the entirely indefensible argument that no U.S. president has been willing to accept a nuclear North Korea (so what!), is put forth with no credible evidence by Sanger. Why is there no mention of the confederal republic/commonwealth plan proposed, respectively, by North Korea AND South Korea in the early 2000s? Both sides recognize the futility of total control of the peninsula. It is U.S./PRC/Russian geopolitical interests that have blocked the sovereign right of the Korean people to chart their own future. While it may be in the DNA of U.S. policy makers that calling South Korea 'our ally' means the U.S. is entitled to permanent presence in the south and a voice in the future of intra Korean relations, independence minded Koreans will ultimately reclaim their sovereignty.

Many anticipate that N. Korea will collapse not many years from now. I just hope that the Chinese would be also in charge when the time comes, On the other hand, Trump tries to take advantage of the situation and get credit for the collapse of N. Korean regime should that happen during his failing presidency. This is what Reagan did with the situation in the Soviet Union.

The real issue here is that running the United States of America has gotten harder and harder because the nation has gotten bigger and bigger. What with being a superpower fueled by oil and bolstered by the reserve currency status of the US dollar, we have a lot on our hands to maintain, much less make great again. Trump is not up to the task -- not even close -- and it's his narcissistic temperament that makes him think he is competent despite his attitude and behavior driving away the professionals who could have kept the nation floating and on course. One commenter mentioned Vlad and Kim, and I'd add Xi, are pulling up lawn chairs watching the American Empire founder and drift at sea between the Atlantic and Pacific. Who really thinks that America can just go on forever? All the millions sucking on their slurpees with red, white and blue teeth unaware of the most obvious and recurring fact of history: empires don't burn out, they fade away.

How about it isn't MAD for one thing since the assured destruction is totally asymmetric by any standard from the cold war. The big point in mutual assurance is that it is in fact mutual and certain, ruling out direct conflict as a sane option.

So we've established North Korea is ALREADY a nuclear state capable of striking the continental United States -- with what effect and accuracy is unclear, but let's all please put that question to rest. So it's clear if war breaks out in any form between the US and NK, millions of lives both there AND here are almost guaranteed to be lost. MILLIONS. And yet we read here that the "concessions" which might prevent this mass extermination are thought to include (1) pausing US military exercises on the Korean peninsula and/or (2) coming up with a diplomatic peace treaty to finally end the Korean War? What on earth is so unreasonable or untenable about either of those actions? Are they worth millions of innocent lives lost? Again, NK is ALREADY a nuclear state. We need diplomacy NOW. There are real existential stakes here, and I for one have zero patience or sympathy for dated, testosterone-driven "Realpolitik" blather, much less the delusional, and potentially suicidal idiot-notion of "preventive" war.

Fact 1: North Korea is China's protégé (literally in French,"protected") because North Korea secures China's border, which is 1950 was attacked by the United States right after Mao came to power. Fact 2: Americans have allowed Democrats and Republicans (including Trump and the Clintons) to sell America out to the Chinese because in a communist system, cheap goods for Walmart, as well as expensive goods for Apple, can be made in sweatshops with no regard for human rights or the environment. Fact 3: Xi, Mao's successor as the chairman of the Central Committee of the Chinese Community Party (who the NY Times called the "President" of China, is actually far smarter and well-informed, and has a far better team supporting and advising him than does any U.S. president, especially Trump. I think a nuclear war, or a world war, is definitely possible within the next year. In a nuclear war, all sides will lose, and the losers will then scramble to pick up the scraps. In a world war, no one may win. But U.S. power will be seriously diminished. I mean, does anyone really think Putin will side with Trump against China? Why would Putin side with THE stupidest leader on the entire planet against one of the smartest leaders on the planet?

Well, Trump's policy is Talk Big and Forget What You Say Tomorrow. Two or more crazies with power is what we're living with now.

According to the New York Times, President Dwight D. Eisenhower decided in 1953 to use atomic bombs in North Korea and Communist China, if necessary, to end the Korean War. The State Department and the Joint Chiefs of Staff said that is hostilities resumed the United States should undertake ''offensive air operations employing atomic weapons against military targets in Korea, and against those military targets in Manchuria and China which are being used by the Communists in direct support of their operations in Korea.'' So Trump is no the first president to consider using nuclear weapons against North Korea. http://www.nytimes.com/1984/06/08/world/us-papers-tell-of-53-policy-to-u...

"[The President] is not going to tolerate North Korea being able to threaten the United States.” So stupid. N. Korea can smuggle a nuke in a small fishing boat to Indonesia and send it via container ship to any US port any day already.

“The president’s been very clear about it,” he said at another point. “He said he’s not going to tolerate North Korea being able to threaten the United States.” ****** Still waiting for proof of Melania's citizenship.

The world has to blame the American administration who reneged on a deal with North Korea at the turn of the century. NK had frozen its nuclear program and put its reactor out of commissioning at that time; only for the Administration (was it Clinton or W. Bush) to stop sending food subsidies to the famished country and then took the North Koreans lightly (just like most U.S. adminstrations have done elsewhere in the world: Afghanistan and so on). What’s scary is that the U.S. pretend they know much more than they actually do and hence their dangerous policies could very well end up this time in a nuclear war. Nothing is more dangerous than a pretender who thinks they can lead while they actually know close to nothing. I wonder what steps would Mr. Trump take next to defuse this volatile situation?

Trump is lost in a sea of mud with no viable solution.

Vlad and Kim can relax now. They can just sit back and watch the show as America circles the drain. Maybe they'll even welcome trump into the Dictator Club out of gratitude for having so thoroughly, quickly and without their having to fire a shot, brought us down.

Only option is to utterly destroy North Korea’s weapons capability— can be done by our military in less than three hours. Alternative is to ‘trust’ their leader whose only goal is to destroy us.

The point that Trump cannot comprehend is that Kim is a rational actor, within his own context. Kim is not contemplating "suicide by nuke" in a first attack against the US. But Kim is in real danger of a first attack by the US. Trump is so unhinged and self-deceiving about his own powers that he thinks he can not only get away with a first strike, he can ascend the pedestal of Most Powerful Strongman On Earth by attacking North Korea. This is an especially dangerous time for America and the world at large. Trump will definitely attack North Korea, essentially as a deflection from his problems with the Russia investigation, which is closing in on him. The American era of diplomacy is now dead with the elevation of the Trumpist Mike Pompeo to Secretary of State and nut job Tom Cotton to head the CIA. America's very survival is in doubt with Trump at the helm. It is clear - for America to survive, Trump must be removed from office.

Why are we more concerned about a possible attack on the South Koreans than the South Koreans are? We must take our cue from them and they must defend themselves, as well.

“Here’s my strategy on the Cold War: we win; they lose.” Ronald Reagan

Tough existential issue meets most incompetent American administration of all time. I don't know the answer to the N. Korea threat. But, as an American with my eyes open and good, working brain, I do know my country is currently in the hands of the least capable, mentally unfit pretender who should not be trusted on a garbage truck much less dealing with grave matters of national security. Trump is a clueless joke. He threatens my life.

Virtually every American president of the past five decades has failed to understand or respond to the threat posed to us by the Kims. They want revenge. Their singleminded focus has been to develop nuclear weapons for the purpose of destroying the US. Now that they have developed that capacity our leaders continue to fantasize that the threat is not real, that somehow it can be negotiated, tamed or controlled. This is NOT what the Kims have been working on since 1953. When the missles are finally ready and armed, we will find out how stupid we have been. This negligence and the ridiculous assertions by our leaders that the missiles can be shot down before reaching us will be shown to have been wishful thinking on a disasterous scale. How many Americans must die because of this stupidity? 10 million? 50 million? 100 million?

Sit with them and talk!

Congratulations to Presidents Clinton, Bush, Obama, and now Trump –- their abject failure of nerve, political will, vision, and moral courage are responsible for North Korea's nuclear capability and its apparent newly-found ability to reach every corner of the US with ICBMs. Whatever you thought of them politically, I doubt very much that FDR or Reagan would have ever allowed something like this to happen. And I can't imagine Truman or Nixon would have ever permitted US security and defense policy to equally take into consideration the safety of the citizens of Seoul and that of the citizens of the nation they had sworn to protect. What a total failure of leadership.

Washington has got to realize that it's options are extremely limited. With full sanction in place, NK already showed that it's willing to let its' people starve. Now that they have shown they have a missile that can reach the US mainland, Kim Jung Un has achieved his goal of having a seat at the negotiating table. The can was kicked down the road, yes, but Trump's assurance that "they will be dealt with" rings more hollow by the day.

I don't recall during the cold war where one leader or the other was belittling the other with playground name calling. I don't remember there being children in charge either.

We know, or assume. NK bought its basic nuclear know-how from Pakistan. However, where and how did NK obtain its advanced knowledge that has allowed it to advance so far and fast? The education and knowledge takes many decades, and this could not be easy considering the isolation and embargoes that have been in place. A nuclear war is unthinkable. A first strike nuclear war, ie one that is decisive, is probably not possible as its preparation could not be kept secret. DT should keep his mouth shut and find "thinkers" who might find a way to reach and talk to NK.

It's understandable that North Korea's development of nuclear weapons and missiles capable of hitting the US and elsewhere has caused such an existential fear, however the world has lived with them for three generations. Nine countries now have or are believed to have nuclear weapons, with Iran likely to be the tenth. But what negotiating advantages do they really offer North Korea? If it launched an attack it would be annihilated, albeit with horrific loss of life elsewhere as well. North Korea is not going to do that. It is an impoverished nation held together by terror and enforced ignorance and ruled by a privileged and despised elite. Modern history suggests that's not a sustainable long-term model. Kim Jong-un is trying to play another game, one we played with the former Soviet Union beginning in 1949 when the USSR detonated its first atomic bomb. Trump's saber-rattling bluster is foolish and ineffective amateurism. Common-sense hardball diplomacy can handle North Korea, as it did the Soviet Union. That assumes, of course, that we still have a functioning diplomatic corps after the administration's on-going purge of the State Department.