The Times Picayune in its reflection section of July 9 carried two articles concerning the N. Korea problem and what can or can not be done about it. The main title was, "The Threat From N. Korea." One of the articles was written by Laura Rosenberger who was director for China and Korea at the national security council under President Obama and a member of the six party talks delegations on North Korea's nuclear program in the George W. Bush administration. So its obvious Ms. Rosenberger is well qualified to speak on the subject matter because of her experience.
The main points of Ms. Rosenberger commentary was President Trump's sounds off with chest-thumping statements on twitter (this writer calls it Trump's so called tough talk) which is a very reckless reaction and one that risks miscalculation by adversary and ally alike. Ms. Rosenberger explains that Trump's statements and tweets do not represent policy and therefore dangerous. And in fact says it is not clear that Trump has any sense of what our strategy toward N. Korea is. She goes on to detail and explains how N. Korea and our allies might mis-interpret Trump's words.
The second article was written by James Stauridis, a retired U.S. Navy Admiral and former military commander of NATO. The Admiral explains why there are no good military options against N. Korea and says the worse option on N. Korea for the United States is striking first and he goes on to explain his reasons which have been expressed also by other military leaders. Admiral Stauridis also noted N. Korea will present a clear and present danger to the U.S. in about 18-24 months when N. Korea is able to produce reliable nuclear weapons small enough to affix to the war heads of their ballistic missiles.
The Admiral also alluded to the fact that Trump's secretary of defense, Jim Mattis said, a war would be catastrophic. In ending his commentary Admiral Stauridis points out, living with N. Korea's nuclear weapons maybe the least-worst option and that relying on the cold war doctrine of mutual assured destruction, N. Korea's leader Kim Jong Un would realize if he used nuclear weapons he would be signing his own death warrant.
What was surprising to this writer, none of the two articles mentioned the unification of North and South Korea as an option and this writer still believes it is the only long range solution. A unified Korea with no outside interference and a nuclear free Korea. Too many years have already been wasted that has yet to yield any progress on bringing N. Korea's nuclear weapons or missile production under control.
And if any thing sounds familiar in the two articles to the reader, its because you read it here first in PolitiDose, just in the last two weeks and several other times in the last seven years. So stay tuned to PolitiDose, your daily Dose of political commentary.
This commentary written by Joe Lorio
