By Dan Butcher
Kim Jong-un appears increasingly likely to do something stupid and trigger a massive attack from the U.S. and South Korea--e.g., firing on an American aircraft carrier, or sending a missile over American airspace, or launching an attack on U.S. troops at the DMZ.
The North Koreans probably have concluded that the divisive state of American politics has weakened President Trump and rendered him unable to act. Even insults that they fling at Trump get picked up and repeated by Democrats, such as "dotard". They are undoubtedly basking in their propaganda success among the liberal Left in America.
But they are desperately mistaken.
From Fox News:
Kim Jong Un's regime is reportedly on the verge of announcing it's achieved full nuclear capability, as North Korea expedites its intercontinental ballistic missile program with the aim of being able to obliterate the "heinous gangsters" in the United States with a nuclear warhead.
South Korean unification minister Cho Myoung-gyon told foreign correspondents in Seoul that 2018 will be a “key year” for the rogue regime, which will celebrate its 70th anniversary since being established, Yonhap News Agency reported.
“North Korea has been developing its nuclear weapons at a faster-than-expected pace. We cannot rule out the possibility that North Korea could announce its completion of a clear force within one year," Cho said, according to the South Korean news site.
Cho said though North Korea hasn’t tested a nuclear weapon or missile since September, people shouldn’t overlook the brief hiatus. The regime seems to be testing missile engines and fuels, Yonhap reported.
Read more......
Without strong ties and obligations to the opposition party in Congress, President Trump in fact is more free to act. And he has already demonstrated a propensity to act, for instance the attack on Syria in response to chemical weapons.
If war comes, the Democrats must bear their share of the blame. Having adopted a policy of undermining and "resisting" the President wherever possible, they have given great comfort and support to our deadliest enemies.
The North Koreans have demonstrated limited ability to launch an ICBM. Several launches have aborted, and 2-3 have succeeded. They might have the capability to launch something into Hokkaido (Japan's northern island) but it will be a long time before they have the ability to target an American city on the mainland or Alaska. They have nuclear devices but such weapons are useless without a delivery system.
However, Seoul (the capital of South Korea) is just over the border and would be a sitting duck for a primitive missile with an atomic bomb welded onto it. Theoretically North Korea is capable of causing massive damage to the South.
However, should North Korea drop such a weapon on Seoul, any other South Korean city, a Japanese city in Hokkaido, or a U.S. naval force, the U.S. would undoubtedly respond with a massive attack.
There's absolutely no question that the U.S. military has plans in place to take out the missile launchers, the nuclear facilities, and whatever other juicy targets exist. Probably they would start with a blitz of thousands of Tomahawk cruise missiles, and once the North Korean air defenses are kaput, the U.S. Air Force and South Korean Air Force will destroy whatever's left. Meanwhile ground and air forces will mobilize to the DMZ to destroy North Korean troops.
That's my theory of what should happen. Probably North Korea will do something more clever and less blatant, however, and stay just this side of nuclear provocation which they know they cannot win at this time.
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