By Chirs Benevento, News Staff
Amidst the coverage of American Kenneth Bae’s return to a North Korean forced-labor camp came a second update: North Korea’s missile capabilities have allegedly improved once more.
According to reports, North Korea has increased the launch capability of its latest missile tower. With the improvements to the tower, the range of North Korean missiles has risen to surpass their previous reach. On top of this, North Korea has vowed to continue expanding its missile program much to the worry and dismay of the United States and its allies. So what happens next?
Nothing.
As per usual, the North Korean government will continue to push the world’s buttons only to receive no legitimate response. They will move Bae from camp to camp, bring missiles to the coastline and continue to vow to bring destruction to the West.
As recent history dictates, none of this elaborate posturing will result in action. North Korea will continue to play second fiddle to Iran in terms of international concern. Kim Jong-Un will continue to be viewed as a spoiled boy-king with something to prove. The North Korean public will continue to starve and the United States will continue to impose toothless sanctions that merely chide the totalitarian country. North Korea is determined to continue testing and disregarding the promises of more sanctions from the international community. Banning luxury goods is not a strong enough position to force change onto the regime and further sanctioning will prove ineffective to leaders that do not care for the public welfare.
This raises the question: why put up with it?
Clearly the North Korean government is not suicidal – they are well aware of the dire consequences of an act of war. They would not risk going head-to-head with the United States.
With that said, one would think the constant stream of threats would be responded to by now. Sanctions clearly have no actual effect on the North Korean mentality. Maybe a display of force would.
When a country follows up its threats by moving missile launchers to the coast, as North Korea did last year, there should be some legitimate response from the global community. In short, the North Korean government should experience another “Operation Paul Bunyan” – a display of overwhelming force. As it did in 1976 when tensions were much higher, a nonviolent display of sheer military strength would likely humble the nation – at least to a point where it thinks before issuing more rhetoric.
A leader as irresponsible as Kim Jong Un deserves to know exactly who it is he is threatening. If not for the United States, then for the residents of South Korea, Japan and China who have to deal with this geopolitical nuisance in their backyards.
It does not take an act of war to demoralize an aggressor. The United Nations needs to get off of its haunches and show the North Korean government that there are very real consequences for threatening the international community.
Every time a new burst of war-mongering rhetoric comes out of the country or a missile lands in the Sea of Japan only to receive no response, the UN is failing to promote peace through international cooperation – the very purpose of its founding. If people are to ever take the UN seriously, it needs to prove that it is capable of reigning in rogue states such as North Korea – the countries that actually level threats at the West and seek (at least in rhetoric) to harm innocent people abroad.
The North Korean military is a constant point of discussion due to its huge numbers; however, it is the arsenal that determines today’s victors – not the personnel. While the annual joint military drills with US and South Korean forces keep the North Koreans aware of the United Nation’s presence, it fails to make any lasting impact on the state of relations with the isolationist regime. The UN comes off as fearful to spark any form of confrontation at all. And that is where the issue lies.
While ignoring North Korea has clearly worked thus far, it has painted the UN as weak – unable to reign in the misbehaving child. For the founding principles of the UN are to be upheld, these acts of baseless aggression cannot go unchecked.
-Chris Benevento can be reached at [email protected].
