NORTH KOREA-THREAT OR RHETORIC

The Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK) for a long time has been raising tensions between itself and International community. The World’s most isolated nation has succeeded in further isolating itself. The North Korean government is a dictatorship well known for it’s blatant defiance of international rules, as well as it’s seemingly imperiousness to outsiders especially to the United States. North Korea, the world’s most militarized nation, having the fourth largest army in the world, at nearly 1.2 million armed personnel, with an estimated stockpile of 6-8 nuclear weapons, has been demanding the attention of the world for a long time.
North Korea’s rhetoric has for a greater part of two decades been targeted at the United States, whom they regard as imperialists. Part of this rhetoric is North Korea’s regard of the US as it’s perpetual enemy, when in reality expert’s say it craves America’s attention and wants to have a good relationship with the US. The relationship between North Korea and the US has been filled with tension ever since the Korean war which began in 1950 and ended in 1953 in an armistice. However, experts blame the US for fueling much of North Korea’s rhetoric as well as rise in tensions between both nations. The tension experts say, began to build-up after the US labeled North Korea as a “Rouge state”. This labeling pushed the US towards as a default strategy of containment and isolation. This pushed North Korea to adopt a very aggressive strategy towards the US and the international community (mainly the west). North Korea’s military buildup is also seen as one of the byproduct of the US strategy of containment and isolation. But implementing this strategy has been virtually impossible for the US; as North Korea does not fit a rouge state. The Clinton administration recognized this and had to exclude North Korea from it’s adopted one-size-fits-all approach to so-called “rouge states”. The US labeling of North Korea as a rouge state has stuck her in a conundrum: either it must talk to and negotiate with a regime that it would normally not talk to nor negotiate with, or it should try to isolate North Korea even more. Isolation, however, is no longer possible as North Korea is now in possession of nuclear weapons and that cannot be ignored. During the Clinton administration, good diplomatic progress was made with North Korea in terms of negotiations on key issues such as: Human rights, missile technology proliferation and it’s nuclear weapons program. This negotiations between the US and North Korea translated into positive progress on the ground on some of the issues, despite several irrational actions undertaken by the North Koreans during that period. Actions such as the testing of a ballistic missile (Taepodong I) in 1998 which flew over Japan and the submarine incursion into South Korea. This successes culminated in the 2000 Inter-Korea summit meeting which was the most important reconciliation event that the Koreas had taken part in since the division of the peninsula. A change in the administration in Washington and the September 11, 2001, attacks ended the window of opportunity with the North. Compared with 2000, 2001 and 2002 showed a death in the relationship between the US and North Korea, mostly because of the terrorist attacks and President Bush’s “Axis of Evil” speech (in which he labeled North Korea alongside Iran, Libya, Iraq, Cuba, and Syria) in early 2002. President Bush’s change in policy towards North Korea, shown by it’s decision not to pick up where President Clinton had left off, drove a wedge in the already warming relationship between both countries. This left North Korea with no choice but to turn to it’s rhetoric of war and that of wiping out the US. North Korea’s military build-up is due to a real of a potential US military attack which was reinforced by the Bush administration’s goal of confronting rouge states (which includes North Korea) and also it’s firm believe in and support of preemptive strikes against such nations. The North Koreans also blame the US for being the root cause of the suffering and misfortune of it’s people. Both nations for over two decades have been using strong language to label each other and the their leaders. Experts believe that recent negative and aggressive rhetoric between Washington and Pyongyang was due to the lack of a negotiating relationship between the United State and North Korea as well as President Bush’s “Axis of Evil” speech. Experts also believe that North Korea is being affected by the United State’s negative rhetoric as it does not like been called names and that this could be a stumbling block in terms of of potential negotiations.
North Korea has conducted two nuclear weapons test (October 2006 and May 2009) ,the first test which was widely believed to be triggered by the Bush administration’s strong language and policies towards North Korea. However, it is also known that these tests as well as the ballistic missile tests by North Korea are means of attracting attention from the international community especially attention from the US. The North Korean threat is merely a mirage as it lacks the industrial capacity to build large numbers of long-ranged missiles which are it’s greatest assets of threats. They will not be able to build so many weapons as to become a strategic factor in the region. North Korea only poses a threat to the South and it’s leadership knows that an attack on the South means an end to the regime. . North Korea does not want war neither does it want to destroy the US, no far from it. It wants a friendly relationship with the world especially the United States. Why would the leader of a nation that wants to wipe out the United States spend so much time learning about US history? The North Koreans want peace and security but it does not know how to achieve this and sees it’s rhetoric of war as the only way to achieve this. The US should stop it’s negative rhetoric towards North Korea and should rather engage North Korea. Isolating North Korea further could threaten the stability of the immediate region surrounding North Korea. Instability within the region would most likely spill over and upset Global security, since North Korea’s neighbors are amongst some of the most powerful nations in the world. Engagement with North Korea is thus needed, as containing and confronting North Korea would only heighten it’s resolve, whereas engagement would be more successful.