TAKING NUCLEAR WAR LIGHTLY

Jan 06, 2018 Editorial

Since the end of World War II, the United States has been considered the leading country of the world and its presidents as the world’s leaders. It was a title bestowed on US Presidents particularly during the Cold War, and was further enhanced in 1989 with the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and the tumbling down of the Berlin Wall which led to the unification of East and West Germany.
But the infantile behaviour of President Donald Trump and his obnoxious tweets have in recent times caused the rest of the world, especially Europe, to look elsewhere for global leadership.
President Trump seems to be taking war, especially a nuclear war, very lightly His recent boasting that he has a much bigger and more powerful “nuclear button” than Kim Jong-un and that his button works, suggests that he is not schooled about the danger and consequences of a nuclear war or even what his idle utterances could trigger. His tirade came in a mocking response to Kim Jong-un’s fiery New Year’s address in which he essentially issued nuclear threats against the United States.
Since 2015, relations between the US and North Korea has soured, as Kim Jong-un has accelerated his country’s nuclear and ballistic missile development, that now potentially poses a direct threat to the US, South Korea’s crucial ally. Whether true or not, Kim Jong-un’s claims – that he has a nuclear button on his desk and that the whole territory of the U.S. is within the range of his nuclear strike – have not been validated.
Even though President Trump does not actually have a physical button on his desk to start a nuclear war, the leaders of the world should not stand idly by and allow the United States and North Korea to continue issuing constant nuclear threats to each other.
Everyone, especially those in the Korean Peninsula should be concerned with such threats. History has shown that it is very easy to start a war but extremely difficult to end it. Therefore, the leaders of the world should take a tougher stance against both the US and North Korea and encourage them to trade their threats for dialogue in this new year.
The process for the US to launch a nuclear strike is secret and complex, and involves a rotating group of military officers everywhere the president goes. He is equipped with communication tools and a book with prepared war plans. If a president were to order a strike, he would have to identify himself to military officials at the Pentagon with codes unique to him. Those codes are recorded on a card known as the “biscuit” that is carried by the president at all times. He would then transmit the launch order to the Pentagon and Strategic Command Posts.
With the current threats and tensions between the US and North Korea, many countries, including China, believe that it is almost impossible for North Korea to cede to the US demand to rid itself of all its nuclear weapons. International experts have contended that while China appears to be supportive of the US position, it would prefer to have a North Korea with nuclear weapons than to have U.S. control of the Korean Peninsula.
North Korea is deemed a rogue state by the US and should not be trusted to have nuclear weapons. But the unprecedented sanctions from the U.N. over its weapons programs have not prevented it from ratcheting-up its missile tests. In fact, North Korea has conducted more nuclear tests during the first year of the Trump administration than in any other president’s first year in office.
South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in has supported Trump’s pressure campaign against North Korea, but favours dialogue to ease the North’s nuclear threats. He sees the Pyeongchang Olympics as the starting point for such dialogue. However, the talks between North and South Korea, slated for Tuesday (January 9) is being viewed as suspicious by the US, which believes that Kim Jong-un’s intent is to drive a wedge between Washington and Seoul, and to reduce its growing international isolation and relief from sanctions. Only time will tell.

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