China is sitting in a hard place with its North Korean Ally. Australia, Japan, and South Korea are under nuclear war threats and so is the USA. The fear among the general people of the world that one day a great holocaust will come seems to be trending towards reality with every single day that passes by. Irrespective of what Trump or his generals or the rest of the world are saying and doing, the worry that this time it could be for real sits at the forefront of the minds of civilized people across the world.
North Korean threatened on Sunday 23 April, that they were "ready to sink a US aircraft carrier to demonstrate its military might " The report that originated with Thomson Reuters is just the most recent of threats reported against the United States.
While those in America who did not support the election of Donald Trump have blamed him for what is being termed the "Korean Peninsular" crisis, the threat of nuclear war has been coming from North Korea for years. Japan has been at the end of that threat possibly because Kim Jong-un is the third in the Dynasty to rule his country. The first of his family to rule North Korea, Kim Il-sung had no love for Japan who ruled the country until the breakup of Japan's empire after the second world war.
North Korea - the history of enmity
Given the history of enmity between North Korea and Japan, it is not a big surprise that Kim Jong-un has threatened that country. The US involvement comes out of the fact that they have maintained military bases in South Korea since the Korean war in the 1950's - a war which was started by Kim Il-sung, who ruled North Korea as a communist country.
North Korea is still a communist country, although it is one with a difference - it is ruled by the bloodline of the Kim family. South Korea are understandably concerned about being absorbed into this autocratic country. The recent threats of nuclear war by North Korea on American targets is, therefore, a serious threat.
More recently, it appears that Kim Jong-un is threatening everyone who may be any type of ally against his country in the event of war.
On the weekend, the New Daily reported that the Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says North Korea should focus on its “long-suffering citizens” rather than the development of weapons of mass destruction and investing in military testing." This was in response to North Korea warning Australia that it "could be hit with nuclear weapons if it continues to “blindly” follow the United States."
Will Kim Jong-un pull the nuclear trigger?
If Kim Jong-un has the nuclear capacity to start this war - will he 'pull the trigger?' The information available is scant and much of it unconfirmed, but what little there is, would indicate that this very young Supreme Leader might very well do so.
He is in his early thirties and apart from a penchant for military parades, drinking, and smoking, he has a reported passion for video games. In video games, nobody really dies, so we might think that Kim is not actually aware of the real-life implications of nuclear war. There, people would be wrong. Kim of North Korea knows very well that people die and suffer in real life.
Under his rule, there have been many executions and the Economist carried the report that in 2013 of his own uncle Jang Sung-taek's execution. It was widely reported in Asia, and in The China Times that Kim had also ordered the execution of the extended family of Jang to completely destroy all traces of Jang's existence.
"Those reportedly killed in Kim's purge include Jang's sister Jang Kye-sun, her husband and ambassador to Cuba, Jon Yong-jin, and Jang's nephew and ambassador to Malaysia, Jang Yong-chol. The nephew's two sons were also said to have been killed."
Underestimating the Supreme Leader
Another execution was the deputy security minister in the Ministry of Public Security, who was reported by the Daily Mail to have been burnt to death by a flame thrower for allegedly supporting Kim's Uncle Jang. Let us not write off the threats from a man many perceived to be a bit of bumbling fellow with a vacant smile and an ability to salute his troops on parade for three hours without flinching. Westerners may meme and joke about his haircut and his lack of apparent social graces, but he was raised in privilege from birth and in his country, he really is a supreme leader.
When he was younger he did spend some time in Switzerland but reports are he was introverted, shy and chaperoned.
This is not a video game. His challenge to attack the civilized world in a nuclear war might very well be a massive threat. I for one believe he is capable of pulling the trigger. We can only hope that this posturing and strutting about the status of nuclear weapon readiness is as far from reality as US intelligence would have us all believe.
