Child’s Play and America First

Kim Jong-un is the child dictator of a massive army that has become a menace to the rest of the world. North Korea fell under his rule following the death of his father. He just turned 33 years old. Despite being educated at a private English school in Switzerland, very little is known about the man who is rattling his sabre and threatening to attack the United States with nuclear weapons. Some say he was a shy student who did not do well in school and was fascinated by American basketball.

For almost 70 years North Korea has become ever darker and more secretive. Following the end of hostilities on the Korean Peninsula in 1953 Kim’s grandfather became the nations first dictator, followed by his father. It seems fairly clear that this coddled child has little understanding of the immense fire power that may be unleashed by the American military on his nation if he persists on pursuing nuclear weapons and advancing the North Koreans ballistic missile program.

North Korea is a nation of 20 million people. For the most part they are very poor and by many accounts are little more than brainwashed slaves to the state. The nations leading export is coal to China and recently that was rejected and stopped at the border. 80% of the country’s trade is with their Chinese neighbors to the north.

In order to keep the country relevant Kim has been testing nuclear weapons and pushing the testing on ballistic missiles. All of which is in violation of the United Nations resolutions on the matter. Several American administrations in a row have adopted a pseudo policy of monitoring the situation while doing little to stem the move by the regime to turn itself into a nuclear power. That has come to an end it seems.

Vice President Mike Pence issued a clear warning to the Kim government from South Korea Monday. “The era of strategic patience is over”, he declared. This is President Donald Trump’s America First policy in action. A shooting war with North Korea will create an immediate danger but not to America but to South Korea and Japan. Even if the North Koreans cannot launch a nuclear weapon intended for Seoul, they can hit the south with heavy artillery of which they have plenty. Japan would also be threatened more directly by Kim’s army but Trump is more concerned that down the road The United States would be threatened by a nuclear armed North Korea and he is making it clear that is not acceptable. Trump is making it clear that threats to America from this rogue regime are not ok.

It appears that while Kim Jong-un is acting like a petulant child that is out of touch with the realities of war and the ramifications of his posturing and threatening. President Trump meantime is laying down the terms by which we will move forward and those we will not. He is setting the terms by which the United States will live in this world and it will not be looking down the barrel of gun in the hand of a North Korean dictator.