The North Korean standoff

The North Korean Standoff

The U.S. and North Korea remain on a collision course as the standoff has persisted on an orange alert threat level throughout this week. President Trump has been discussing the matter with President Xi on the phone who counselled him that Washington and Pyongyang could meet each other halfway to defuse the situation, urging restraint he stressed that China “resolutely opposes activities that violate U.N. Security Council resolutions” and is willing to work with the United States and other countries to keep the peace.

President Trump is faced with solving the North Korea conundrum in the first 100 days of his administration, he has surmised that President Xi can help him bring “the crazy fat kid to heel”. China, on its part, has made visible efforts to dissuade Pyongyang from carrying out further nuclear tests, it has cut off coal exports to North Korea while hinting that oil supplies would follow if President Kim carries out one more test. Most Chinese analysts are of the view that some diplomacy could break the ice if the brinkmanship ceased.

Pragmatically speaking, North Korea is feeling cornered and pressurized from all sides and its economy is in no state to bear tougher sanctions. Constantly upping the ante prevents any breakthrough and China has not been able to get assurance from Pyongyang regarding further missile tests, this has even caused some friction between the old allies already and pushing DPRK further might make it take a wrong decision. The U.S. has already talked so big that it is unclear how it plans to cope with something less, saying the “clock has now run out” and “all options are on the table” leaves little space for diplomatic solutions.

Recently, President Trump recently went ahead and summoned the entire U.S. Senate to the White House for a high priority briefing on the issue of the “the crazy fat kid” in North Korea, alarmingly most “options on the table” were nuclear. Even now some Americans want to abandon the diplomacy option, like Senator John McCain said “For years, the United States has looked at China, North Korea’s long-term patron and sole strategic ally to bring the regime to the negotiating table and achieve progress toward a denuclearized Korean peninsula, but China has repeatedly refused to exercise that influence.”

While the belligerent posturing continues, disaster preparedness training is underway. Operation Gotham Shield, an inter -agency exercise preparing security and emergency personnel for the eventual detonation of a nuclear bomb over New York City just concluded recently. On the same day a full scale Senate and military top brass meeting was held at the White House, a full-scale preparedness drill was held in Washington D.C and the U.S.S. carrier group and U.S.S. Michigan arrived in the North Korean peninsula. The United States is prepared for a nuclear attack plus a massive terror attack whilst it has all its nuclear machinery in place. The U.S. Strategic Command’s (STRATCOM) Operations Plan (OPLAN) 8010 doesn't explicitly allow for an American pre-emptive strike but allows for a literal nuclear strike in case of a ‘WMD attack’, OPLAN 8010 goes from “deter” to “defeat,” in this case and stresses the need for an American political decision to employ “strategic forces if deterrence fails.”

Needless to say, North Korea is of the opinion that the U.S. is “spouting a load of rubbish” with its threats about “browbeating” Pyongyang, their Foreign Ministry said that “such intimidation and blackmail can never frighten” North Korea. DPRK state media has also compared the Carl Vinson to a “gross animal,” according to Reuters. Rodong Sinmun newspaper proclaimed “Our revolutionary forces are combat-ready to sink a U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier with a single strike.” North Korea has also held its largest-ever firing drill recently in the presence of its leader Kim Jong-Un, there has been speculation a sixth nuclear test could take place any time this week.

Meanwhile, real nail-biting panic prevails in Japan as their government urged the public to be prepared for a nuclear strike at a ‘ten minutes notice’ it announced, “You won’t get the warning in time, but if you do, then go to a strong building.” Nuclear shelters and radiation-blocking air purifiers are suddenly in demand in Japan. PM Shinzo Abe also demanded that North Korea stop repeating “dangerously provocative actions.” It is Japan which is right in the middle of danger as North Korea only talks about building missiles that can reach the United States, but all its ready to use missiles can already reach Japan. Recently, North Korea tested some missiles on March 6th which landed right in Japan’s exclusive economic zone in the Sea of Japan. Pyongyang merely explained it away saying it was only practicing to hit U.S. military bases in Japan.

Published on China.org.cn