Hey U.S, here's a crazy idea. Why don't you stop your military exercises with South Korea, where you have been simulating bombing & invading North Korea for decades, just outside their territory.
The credit, of course, goes to Chinese diplomat and politician Wang Yi and Green Party Presidential Nominee Jill Stein who have been echoing these words the last couple of months in hopes to wake people up to the situation. But ultimately, it sounds simple enough, right?
Kim Jong-Un has the mentality of a child, I don’t think anyone disagrees at this stage. The North Korean's are heavily oppressed thanks to the dictatorship. That's evident by the rules they live by, such as the fact that North Koreans must abide by one of 28 approved haircuts, all legal televisions are tuned to state-controlled domestic programming, the Internet does not exist other than a closed network with access to less than 10 webpages. The worst is that between 80,000 and 120,000 North Koreans live in prison camps surrounded by electrified fencing, according to the South Korean government estimates and Human Rights Watch.
While clearly extreme, it's hard to believe that Kim is utterly stupid and would go to war with the strongest military in the world. Yes threats are made, however, if political posturing is all that remains, I'm sure there will be no escalation from the North Koreans side. The whole situation with Guam clearly highlights this with Kim recently turning down the opportunity to strike the US territory. We must keep in mind that the United States if they wanted to, could wipe the country off the face of the earth within minutes.
Clearly, these military exercises by the U.S and South Korea only intensify the beats to the war drum. Every year since 1997, the U.S along with South Korea have enacted Ulchi- Freedom Guardian, one of the largest military exercises in the world. The 10-day exercise involves land, sea and air forces simulating going to war with North Korea, this year is no different other than the fact that there may be troops from the UK, Australia, Canada, Denmark, New Zealand and Netherlands. This doesn't include the fact that the US has an army base stationed in South Korea, armed with 3000 troops, along with sending in over 17,500 troops for the exercise. Each year, the United States still increase their military in the region with missile defence systems. The US may state that the defence missiles are part of their defensive strategy, however, it's common knowledge that defensive missiles are mostly used for offensive attacks.
North Korea every year retaliates with missile and nuclear tests, and each year they get increasingly more successful. The notion that Kim Jung-Un should retaliate or that he is in the right to do so is without a doubt arguable of course. Nonetheless, if someone was simulating how to invade your home once a year outside your doorstep with your enemies, you're going to retaliate in some shape or form.
The growing tensions haven't begun with Trump. These military exercises have been occurring since 1997. Meaning this is the same foreign policy that has been applied all throughout the Clinton, Bush and Obama presidency. Donald Trump is simply carrying forth the same destabilise and conquer agenda that previous presidents have run with.
The latest string of events unfolded when the US successfully passed sanctions on North Korea at the United Nations, to which North Korea responded stating they would have a “thousands fold revenge” against the United States. This led to more posturing from Donald Trump leading to his infamous statement "North Korea will be met with fire, fury and frankly power, the likes of which this world has never seen before." which, is pretty dark as it is.
China has proposed a double suspension to defuse the growing tensions between North Korea and the United States, offering a deal to both countries. It would make North Korea suspend their nuclear and missile activities and as long as the US suspend their military exercises outside of North Korea. Countries such as Japan & Russia have also supported such a deal to de-escalate tensions in the Korean Peninsula. North Korea has, in fact, agreed to those terms, Donald Trump of course rejected. This deal has been rejected for three years in a row, the previous two years by President Barack Obama. Doesn’t make sense right? When this sounds like a very reasonable deal.
Now it’s important to understand that, instead of arrogantly dismissing Kim Jung-Un as crazy and deranged that it would be more beneficial to consider his actions carefully. Now, this doesn’t mean I side with the dictator, simply because he is a dictator. However, it is clear that there is a provocation on both sides and furthermore, a simple solution available that could put an end to all these escalating war games.
For more, check out the interview with Jill Stein below who recently came back from a visit to Korea.
