What is this 38north.org? It reads like a DPRK propaganda machine.
"there is no sign that North Korea is contemplating an imminent launch which would make it a preemptive strike"
Other than Kim's direct threats to do so?
Edit: on further reading, I strike my first sentence. The author's credentials and site sponsors seem legit. Disagree with the thrust of the article though.
As it says on the site, it’s the US-Korea Institute at John Hopkins.
So no, not DPRK propaganda, but also not the US propaganda you may be attuned to. AFAIK it’s one of the most respected and non-partisan sources for information on the peninsula.
Did he actually [relatively recently] state something along that line that was not conditioned on the violation of North Korea's sovereignty or something similar, i.e. an offensive attack?
> A telling blow should be dealt to them who have not yet come to senses after the launch of our ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) over the Japanese archipelago
> Let’s reduce the U.S. mainland into ashes and darkness. Let’s vent our spite with mobilization of all retaliation means which have been prepared till now
> [The U.S. should be] beaten to death like a rabid dog
> The four islands of the archipelago should be sunken into the sea by the nuclear bomb of Juche. Japan is no longer needed to exist near us
It was not conditional. These were in response to support of UN security counsel sanctions following the ICBM launched over Japan.
Is the full statement available? I managed to figure out that the statement was issued by North Korea's Asia-Pacific Peace Committee and the quotes you mentioned are found in countless articles but I failed to find the full statement.
"Already taken place" is not crucial, as the conditional can obviously be placed on it continuing.
Plus, an action like an embargo or sanction can be devastating to a country while still being "non-military". That old BS embargo on Iraq has claimed hundreds of thousands lives for example [1].
In fact, what we do have now is that "non-military" action happening, and no counter-response. So, it's more like them sucking up and taking it, with some verbal threats added to save face.
So it appears you live in western europe, and you aren't concerned about north korea because there's no immediate threat, even though millions might die in US. Well, maybe you will have some empathy if after america falls, North Korea decides to target europe with russia.
Since you appear to have created this account for political and national battle, which is against the rules of this site, I've banned it. If you don't want to be banned, you're welcome to read https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and email [email protected].
I indeed live in Western Europe, and I'm more concerned with the pissing game between the US and NK than with the NK alone (which minds its own business generally and is isolationist). France had attacked them in the 19th century, and the US went to war with Korea in the 50s (with French support), not the other way around.
Their playing with fire and pissing match with Islam (including pissing whole populations, funding rogue groups, and their favorite regimes in the region) has already costs all of us dearly, including in Europe. Heck, we still have an influx of desperate peoples from every country they destabilized in the past 10-15 years.
Say what you want about colonial European powers, but scum as it were, it still managed to control 2/3rds of the globe with much more nuance and diplomacy than the barbarians at the other side of the Atlantic.
>Well, maybe you will have some empathy if after america falls, North Korea decides to target europe with russia.
I also don't read many fairy tales presented as political analysis.
(1) That was actually conditional on future Pakistani decisions. (2) That was a remark by an assistant secretary of state, and the president rejected it.
> If they were in response, they sure sound like conditional then.
Everything governments ever do is conditional by that standard.
>Everything governments ever do is conditional by that standard.
Not really, the more shameless governments can do stuff that's entirely unprovoked, and that concerns stuff thousands of miles away from their borders.
The colonial conquest of India, for example, wasn't conditioned on some threat or action from India against the UK.
"there is no sign that North Korea is contemplating an imminent launch which would make it a preemptive strike"
Other than Kim's direct threats to do so?
Edit: on further reading, I strike my first sentence. The author's credentials and site sponsors seem legit. Disagree with the thrust of the article though.