The international tensions with North Korea have quietened down recently. A few months ago, it seemed like a nuclear holocaust was right around the corner, and US President Donald Trump wasn’t making things any better by calling Kim Jong-un, the volatile North Korean dictator, “short and fat.” However, it has transpired over the last couple of days that Kim hadn’t calmed down and retreated into the night, but had in fact been keeping hush for a couple of months so that he could work on his most powerful missile yet, and now he’s shown us what it can do.
North Korea fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) over Japan, and experts are saying it’s their most powerful weapon yet. According to US Defence Secretary James Mattis, the launch proves that the country’s missiles are now able to reach “everywhere in the world, basically,” if they wanted to. It’s been two months since North Korea’s last ICBM test, which used to be a massive international, geopolitical issue. China threatened them over it and then got themselves mugged off when Kim tested another one. Now, all of those tensions have been reignited and the crisis is all kicking off again.
Trump has been keeping cool about it, saying quite simply, “We will take care of it.” He doesn’t seem to understand the gravity of a potential nuclear fallout in the wake of the outbreak of World War III, since instead of panicking and getting off his behind, he’s simply sitting back and calling the crisis with North Korea “a situation that we will handle.” Oh, that’s good.
Thanks, Trump. Good to know you’ve got a handle on things. Now, we can rest easy. Except no, we can’t.
Japan and South Korea among the countries condemning North Korea
Leading the damning attacks on North Korea in the wake of the launch are Japan, whose skies the missile soared through following the launch, and South Korea, the straight-laced, good-natured twin of the North.
The missile landed in the ocean off the coast of Japan, which kicked off the concerns that Kim’s regime is alarmingly close to finally having crafted the technology necessary to get a nuclear missile all the way to the United States.
Trump or Mattis or someone had better have something up their sleeve or some plan to save the day at the last second.
We need our own real life Captain America or Jack Bauer to get us out of this one. North Korea haven’t done anything real yet, and maybe they won’t ever do anything and they’re just teasing with these tests, but the prospect of it is terrifying enough to warrant acting on it. At least South Korea are on the right lines. They tested their own missile in response to the North’s launch.
North Korea have now tested twenty ballistic missiles this year
As we’re nearing the end of the year, we’re getting a roundup of 2017 – all the statistics and the records broken and the financial figures and the comparisons with other years and how this one fares against them. One such bit of 2017 trivia is the fact that North Korea’s regime have test-launched a lovely grand total of twenty ballistic missiles this year.
This one was the twentieth one in total, and its third successful test of an ICBM (the kind that, if working properly and carrying a nuclear device, could wipe out the mainland United States from all the way back in North Korea).
South Korean President Moon Jae-in has expressed his concern that his country’s security would be sent “spiralling out of control” if North Korea manages to perfect the ICBM. He added that the United States might decide to launch a pre-emptive strike that could screw things right up. So, let’s hope that doesn’t happen. Let’s hope none of this happens. Watch this space.
