The North Korean arms race

North Korea has declared war on the United States; who cares, right?

The country, deemed the “hermit kingdom” as a result of it being walled out from the rest of the world, has continuously declared war on the U.S. for many years now — it’s nothing new. Just this March, North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-Un, claimed North Korea would “burn Manhattan down to ashes” by firing a hydrogen bomb its way.

However pompous and psychotic the claims Kim Jong-Un makes may be, the current “Supreme Commander” of the Kim Dynasty has been able to threaten to “destroy” the United States without getting a legitimately concerned reaction from the nation’s commander-in-chief, President Barack Obama.

Earlier this month, North Korea held its fifth nuclear test — launching a warhead into the Pacific Ocean, and although world leaders protested in frustration, no one in the international community took any sort of action against North Korea. 

I assume that the United States’ attitude toward the communist regime’s political brinkmanship is something along the lines of, “North Korea is all bark and no bite.”

Moreover, with films such as “The Interview” displaying North Korea’s dictatorship in a comedic light, it’s more than likely that Americans don’t take Kim Jong-Un’s declarations of war seriously anymore.

A nonchalant attitude and tough sanctions aren’t going to stop North Korea’s efforts to perfect its missiles. The United Nations needs to shut the lights off in the hermit kingdom, and take definitive action in getting these nuclear weapons out of the hands of Kim Jong-Un.

According to a New York Times article by William J. Broad on North Korea’s atomic weapons program, the hostile nation will have the skills to make a “reliable intercontinental ballistic missile topped by a nuclear warhead” by 2020.

North Korea’s leader is known for his absurd rhetoric, but that doesn’t mean his threats are farfetched. North Korea’s crazed leader is testing its nuclear weapons steadily and is obsessed with the idea of “destroying” the U.S. with firepower — shouldn’t someone be taking this situation at least a little more seriously?

China — which is North Korea’s lifeline for food and materials vital for the economic growth of the country — is the world power which probably has the greatest advantage in stopping North Korea’s arms race.

Cut the funding for the missiles and Kim Jong-Un is going to have a difficult time getting that intercontinental ballistic missile finished by 2020.

When Pyongyang acquires the technology necessary to make a nuclear warhead, the North Korean ICBM will be able to reach targets throughout the U.S. including Washington D.C. — rather than just hitting cities along the West Coast (Long Beach, that’s you).

Now, does North Korea stand a chance against the U.S. military? Not at all.

Despite its recent budget cuts, the U.S. has successfully maintained its position as the world’s strongest military, according to a report on globalization from financial services company, Credit Suisse.

If North Korea’s young, unpredictable leader decides to put his nuclear warhead to use and sends it over our way, the U.S. military will definitely retaliate, but not with nuclear missiles.

Russia and China wouldn’t allow a full-fledged nuclear war in their backyard, especially when an impoverished nation like North Korea would crumble at the snap of a finger if the U.S. were to attack. Nuclear missiles wouldn’t need to be fired by U.S. forces.

Although the U.S. would make serious efforts to avoid using any nuclear warheads against North Korea — we obviously can’t expect Kim Jong-Un to make a responsible choice like averting nuclear war.

North Korea’s leader doesn’t mind having blood on his hands. He already does and could care less.

This is a man who runs a country where due process is largely absent, “re-education” camps torture and keep its prisoners starving, public executions are filmed and the only way a North Korean citizen can avoid being imprisoned and tortured is by abiding with the regime’s strict doctrine.

Kim Jong-Un even extends his hateful reach to North Korean schoolchildren.

It’s been one of the Kim Dynasty’s policies to indoctrinate schoolchildren to hate Americans as soon as they are old enough to understand the concept of nationalism.

In an article titled, “Life in North Korea — The Early Years” for The Guardian, Ph.D. candidate at Seoul National University, Fyodor Tertiskiy, writes about the brainwashing taking place in North Korean schools: “the child learns that it has enemies: American imperialists, Japanese militarists and the South Korean “gang of traitors.”

“They are to be hated, so one should say not that “an American died,” but rather “an American scum kicked the bucket,” he writes.

World leaders must realize the threat that is at hand. Kim Jong-Un is a maniacal leader bent on killing people, whether it be Americans or North Korean citizens, and is test launching nuclear weapons with a goal in mind: to use them against North Korea’s “enemies.”

Stop shrugging off the totalitarian regime’s claims about possible war. North Korea’s weapons program is paving the way for the “destruction” of the U.S. that the Kim Dynasty has always craved.