People are Anxious About a North Korean Conflict

Kim Jong Un. Digital image. CNN. 25 Apr 2017. Web. 5 Jun 2017. (cnn.com).

North Korea has had missile tests. It has had military parades. The country has created videos featuring the demolition of San Francisco and Washington, DC. It is evident that North Korea would like to reign as a global nuclear power.

It is no wonder why many Americans, especially those people who live on the West Coast, are anxious about the pressures between North Korea and the U.S. A recent CNN/ORC* poll showed that:

• 37 percent of Americans think North Korea is an immediate threat.
• 49 percent view North Korea as a long-term threat.
• 13 percent do not see North Korea as a threat.

With more than one-third of the people polled saying that North Korea was the greatest immediate threat to the U.S., it rated higher than the other options given on the poll, including the threat of the Islamic State group (ISIS).

A Fox poll determined that 51 percent of people would support military force to put a halt to North Korea’s work and testing on nuclear weapons. Another 36 percent believed the problem could be solved diplomatically.

In a Reuters interview, President Donald Trump said, “There is a chance that we could end up having a major, major conflict with North Korea. Absolutely.” President Trump said he ultimately would like to resolve the issue diplomatically.

*ORC International is a market-research agency with 16 offices around the world.

Kim Jong-un and North Korea

North Korea has made numerous threats of nuclear destruction to the U.S. and other countries, and Kim Jong-un, the country’s 33-year-old dictatorial leader is seen as poised to turn North Korea into a nuclear power.

While Kim Jong-un is irrational and looked at as crazy and evil, he is not going to put himself at risk of death—he is not suicidal. He is the leader of a weak country and feels the threat of the world’s powerful countries. He does not want to attack the U.S.—he wants to prevent the U.S. from destroying his country. He sees that:

• the U.S. has a security treaty with North Korea’s enemy.
• the U.S. has troops and weapons throughout South Korea.
• the U.S. sails its ships and flies its planes nearby.
• the U.S. conducts joint maneuvers in South Korea.

According to U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, the U.S. would really like to talk with Kim Jon-un and encourage denuclearization in North Korea. Tillerson said the U.S. does not want to destroy North Korea. With that in mind, people in the U.S. who are anxious about a war with North Korea should know that the goal is not to go to war but to be able to discuss the issue.

Reasons Why the U.S. Would Not Go to War with North Korea

• The U.S. has spent 64 years trying to prevent war with the country, and it would be unreasonable to go to war now.
• The U.S. troops could withdraw from the Republic of Korea, removing the North Korean target from America.
• Vice President Mike Pence recently traveled to South Korea, Japan, Indonesia and Australia. According to White House officials, the primary goal of the trip was to strengthen regional security alliances. North Korea’s aggression would be discussed, as well as military options.
• Christopher Hill, former U.S. ambassador to the Republic of Korea, said he believes that President Trump is using tough language with North Korea to call its bluff. (Hill said that people are nervous, because they are not sure if the president means that if “calling North Korea’s bluff” does not work, would it then translate into America going to war.)
• According to Joshua Pollack, a senior researcher at Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California, the North Koreans are not suicidal, and they are not going to just start a war.
• The U.S. has co-existed for years with nuclear rivals Russia and China. This is familiar territory for the U.S. “I don’t think we need to get too worked up about it,” said Pollack. (During the Cold War, the U.S. and the Soviet Union developed inter-continental ballistic missiles—ICBMs– that had the capacity to reach any target in each other’s territory. These could deliver nuclear weapons in a manner that would essentially be immune to defense. However, arms limitations treaties between the countries have reduced the number of ICBMs that are deployed on each side.)
• Joseph Bermudez, an analyst for 38 North, which is associated with the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, said that North Korea would have to produce a warhead that can handle a lot of challenge. “Unlike shorter-range missiles, long-range missiles have multiple engines and flight stages, meaning North Korean engineers have to make rockets—and bombs—that can survive the violent vibrations of launch, the wrenching g-forces of flight and the temperature changes of takeoff and re-entry from space.” While Kim Jon-un wants to test an ICBM later in the year, Bermudez doubts the test would be a success.
• North Korea fired a medium-range missile into the Sea of Japan—about 300 miles. It also created a missile with an approximate range of 2,200 miles—that would travel nearly half of the way to Hawaii—but at this point it has uncovered problems and is not able to launch it.
• The U.S. has made it harder for North Korea to launch its missiles by using cyber-attacks.

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