Both of Maine’s congressional representatives voted recently to call North Korea a state sponsor of terrorism. North Korea was taken off the list of terrorism sponsors in the final year of President George W. Bush’s administration as part of a deal to try to improve relations, a move that lifted some sanctions against the country. […]
North Korea
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
Diplomacy didn't stop N. Korea's nuclear quest
More than five decades ago, the wry British humor magazine, Punch, observed that “Idealists maintain that all nations should share the atomic bomb. Pessimists maintain that they will.” Nuclear weapons in the hands of North Korea’s hereditary Communist dictatorship vindicate the pessimists. Yes, a hereditary Communist dictatorship. North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un is the […]
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Posted inNation / World, sj-web, Uncategorized
Rex Tillerson says pre-emptive force an option with North Korea
SEOUL, South Korea — Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Friday it may be necessary to take pre-emptive military action against North Korea if the threat from their weapons program reaches a level “that we believe requires action.” Tillerson outlined a tougher strategy to confront North Korea’s nuclear threat after visiting the world’s most heavily […]
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web, Uncategorized
Reining in North Korea’s Kim Jong Un
North Korea dictator Kim Jong Un’s 2017 intimidation offensive is so uniquely threatening it deserves its own nickname: Kim’s “Paranoid Spring.” In January Kim Jong Un seeded this extraordinary season of fear by threatening to strike South Korea, Japan and the U.S. with ballistic missiles. The fear factor rose on February 12 when North Korea […]
Posted inOp-Eds, sj-web
North Korea's criminal reality is intolerable
North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and his vicious Pyongyang regime are on rampage, this time combining cold-blooded sibling murder with ballistic missiles and nuclear threat. On February 13, assassins murdered the dictator’s half-brother, Kim Jong Nam. The hit team found their quarry in Malaysia, at the Kuala Lumpur airport. Initial reports echoed spy novel […]
Posted inOp-Eds
U.S. needs deterrent to North Korea missiles
In March 2013, when Austin, Texas, appeared on a map displaying a North Korean missile strike plan, dictator Kim Jong Un’s ballistic missiles couldn’t reach the Lone Star State. For the record, Honolulu, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., appeared on the same map. Hello, 2017. Almost four years have passed — four years filled with […]
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N. Korean missile tests Japan’s resolve
In 2011, North Korea began an accelerated ballistic missile test program. Since then it has conducted 30 live-fire tests. Belligerent theatrics always accompany the tests, with dictator Kim Jong Un playing a highly visible role in the propaganda drama. However, the latest tests, conducted on August 3, went beyond the usual script and entered — […]
Posted inOp-Eds
South Korea learns a difficult lesson
The latest closure of the jointly-administered South Korea-North Korea Kaesong Industrial Region illustrates the limitations of over-reliance on “soft power” — in this case, Seoul’s well-intentioned economic and diplomatic power — when confronting a vicious dictatorship that relies on “hard power” military might and terror for survival and prestige. That describes the North Korean regime […]
Posted inOp-Eds
Japan losing patience with N. Korea
North Korea’s nuclear extortion drama, the repeated threat of nuclear attack followed by demands for food and financial aid, has exhausted South Korean and Japanese diplomatic patience. Last year, Japan indicated that North Korea should expect more than expressions of anger the next time it put a ballistic missile on a launch pad in preparation […]
Posted inOp-Eds
A crack in N. Korea dictatorship?
For some two weeks, last month’s Korean confrontation followed the usual script. North Korea committed an ugly act of war. A military face-off began. Pyongyang spewed vitriol and threatened nuclear war. This time, however, following the attack, artillery duels and intricate diplomacy, the diplomatic stand-down phase included a North Korean statement of “regret.” That is […]