North Korea has been a thorn in the west’s side for decades.
After World War II, the Soviet Union essentially created the Kim dynasty in North Korea and offered arms and aid to their communist comrades.
Sixty-plus years after the Korean War armistice, the communist experiment in the north is still causing misery.
Kim Jong Un has ramped up the country’s missile testing, and finally crossed a threshold nobody wanted to see.
North Korea claims to have completed a successful test on an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of reaching Alaska.
From Townhall.com:
Pyongyang launched an intercontinental ballistic missile Tuesday, despite repeated warnings from the U.S. State Department. North Korea claims the test was successful, hitting its target in the sea off the Korean Peninsula “without any structural breakdown.”
North Korean state media celebrated the launch Wednesday.
“With a broad smile on his face,” Kim called on officials to “frequently send big and small ‘gift packages’ to the Yankees,” KCNA reported, as it listed the technical successes of the rocket, identified by the North Koreans as a Hwasong-14.
The KCNA added that North Korea is now “a full-fledged nuclear power.”
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said “global action” is needed to stop North Korea. The U.S. and South Korea got the ball rolling by conducting joint military drills. Yet, on Twitter, President Trump urged South Korea and Japan to do much more.
Donald J. Trump on Twitter
North Korea has just launched another missile. Does this guy have anything better to do with his life? Hard to believe that South Korea…..
Donald J. Trump on Twitter
and Japan will put up with this much longer. Perhaps China will put a heavy move on North Korea and end this nonsense once and for all!
Trump soon got his answer as far as China was concerned. The country increased its trade with North Korea, leading Trump to tweet, “So much for China working with us.”
Trump is en route to the G20 summit in Germany this week, where he will meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
While Russia and China have slowly moved on from Stalinism and Maoism, North Korea remains one of the most oppressive countries in the world.
The left loves to imagine the United States is the zenith of oppression, but North Korea actually has contemporary concentration camps.
The death of American Otto Warmbier after languishing in a North Korean prison for months (a death some leftists were indifferent toward or even celebrated) showed just how belligerent North Korea has become.
Although sanctions have done considerable damage to North Korea, China continues to prop-up their economy, which puts the United States in a difficult position.
Nobody wants a hot war in the region, especially South Korea, who has a myriad of missiles pointing at them just across the DMZ.
The United States must hope increased economic sanctions from the international community will take the teeth out of the dictatorial regime and deter Kim Jong Un’s militaristic posturing.