Category Archives: United Nations

Government, North Korea, Politics, United Nations, United States

A world dangerously close to the brink

NORTH KOREA

North-Korea-missile-663759

North Korea launched a ballistic missile in the Sea of Japan. This may have been from a submarine or from a new land based launch site.

THE world has looked on in horror this week as North Korea fired a missile over Japan. That has spread panic among the 6million population of Hokkaido island and is cranking-up tension to snapping-point.

Not since the Cuban missile crisis has the world seemed as close to the brink of a genocidal nuclear exchange.

The difference is that in that terrifying stand-off of 1962, both John F Kennedy and Russia’s Nikita Khrushchev remained open to reason. For all their bluster, they saw full-scale war as unthinkable, and each was prepared to compromise.

But how confidently can the same be said of the arch protagonists in the Korean crisis?

We should all hope and believe that Donald Trump, though hugely unpredictable, is less reckless than he likes to appear. As leader of the world’s greatest democracy, he is also restrained by the US Constitution and independent-minded advisers.

But this is hardly true of the North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-un. Surrounded by sycophants too terrified or brainwashed to rein him in, he seems as deranged as he is ruthless.

Indeed, his countless victims include his half-brother, poisoned at Kuala Lumpur airport, and an uncle he blew to shreds with heavy artillery at point-blank range. The fear is that anyone capable of such barbarity may be capable of anything.

But are threats of ‘exterminating’ his regime, and demonstrations of military might, the best way to deal with a madman who seems only to fear losing face?

Or will South Korea’s menaces and bombing exercises, and President Trump’s muscle-flexing, merely heighten Kim’s paranoia and sense of isolation, spurring him to ever wilder acts of lunacy?

One thing seems sure. If the North Korean dictator will listen to anyone, it will be to his neighbours the Chinese, who have everything to fear from war in Korea. The West should be using all its energy and efforts by encouraging Beijing to bring him to reason.

Certainly, Mr Trump should leave him in no doubt that the US will support South Korea to the hilt. But if he wants to be remembered as a statesman, he will tone down the language – and, like Kennedy, work tirelessly to broker peace behind the scenes.

Goading this tyrant with threats of ‘fire and fury’ is surely not the answer. Such language is adding fuel to a fire that could become dangerously out of control. It could even provoke the unthinkable: nuclear war.

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Asia, Government, North Korea, United Nations, United States

Pentagon warns North Korea, ‘You will be destroyed’

NORTH KOREA

DONALD TRUMP’S military chief has warned North Korea that action against the United States would ‘lead to the end of its regime and the destruction of its people’.

Pentagon head Jim Mattis said that Kim Jong-Un would lose any arms race or conflict it started after Pyongyang threatened to strike the American territory of Guam.

Earlier, the US President had declared that his nuclear arsenal was ‘far stronger and more powerful than ever’.

Mr Mattis said that, while Washington was pursuing a diplomatic solution, the military power of the US and its allies was the most robust on Earth. Mr Trump had sent a shudder through Asia this week, threatening to unleash ‘fire and fury like the world has never seen’ against Kim Kong-Un’s regime.

Mr Trump’s comments came after US intelligence concluded that the Korean dictator had developed a nuclear warhead small enough to fit inside a ballistic missile – years sooner than expected.

Supersonic bombers from the American air force then carried out a ten-hour mission over the Korean peninsula, prompting Pyongyang to brand the US ‘nuclear war maniacs’.

The Korean People’s Army said it was ‘carefully examining’ a plan to strike the island of Guam in the Western Pacific – where US bombers are stationed.

Amid fears of nuclear war, Mr Trump continued to boost of his country’s military power on Twitter.

He posted: ‘My first order as president was to renovate and modernise our nuclear arsenal.

‘It is now far stronger and more powerful than ever before. Hopefully we will never have to use this power, but there will never be a time that we are not the most powerful nation in the world!’

However, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson sought to ease tensions and said there was no imminent threat from North Korea.

Mr Trump’s chief diplomat suggested that the president’s sabre-rattling had been deliberately robust – because it was the only language that Kim would understand.

He said: ‘I think Americans should sleep well at night, have no particular concerns about this particular rhetoric of the last few days.’

Mr Tillerson’s comments came as his plane refuelled in Guam, which is 2,131 miles from North Korea, on the way to the US after a trip to Asia.

He added: ‘Nothing I have seen and nothing I know of would indicate that the situation has dramatically changed in the last 24 hours.

‘What the President is doing is sending a strong message to North Korea in language that Kim Kong-Un would understand, because he doesn’t seem to understand diplomatic language.’

Tensions over the North Korean peninsula heightened as Pyongyang tested two intercontinental ballistic missiles.

It was understood they were capable of hitting Alaska, but not the US mainland.

But earlier in the week it was reported that intelligence agencies were convinced North Korea has produced a miniaturised nuclear warhead that could fit on one of its ballistic missiles.

The Defence Intelligence Agency’s assessment suggested Kim’s quest to turn North Korea into a fully-fledged nuclear power had been accelerated by several years.

Officials also increased estimates of the number of nuclear bombs in Kim’s arsenal to 60.

And they revised expectations of how soon the regime could mount a nuclear strike on the American mainland.

Critics countered that they did not believe North Korea has yet mastered the technology required to prevent its long-range missiles burning up in the atmosphere during re-entry from space.

Asia experts claim Mr Trump’s combative language is playing into the hands of Kim by allowing him to convince his people that he is protecting them from a real US threat to their existence.

Although analysts tend to believe North Korea’s ruler does not want war, they have warned he is willing to push tensions with the US as far as possible.

Mr Tillerson said he hoped international pressure – including from Russia and China – could persuade North Korea to reconsider and begin talks.

Britain’s Foreign Office said it would work to ‘maintain pressure on North Korea’.

COMMENT

FOR the second time this year, the escalating tensions in the Korean peninsula are a cause for serious concern.

Over Easter, random missile tests by Pyongyang and US sabre rattling alerted the world to how potentially dangerous the situation in this volatile region could be.

When the stand-off ended, there was at least some hope that North Korea would end its provocative weapons tests.

But instead, the country’s unhinged dictator Kim Jong-Un has doubled down, pressing ahead with the development of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles which he now claims can hit the US mainland.

According to reports sourced to US intelligence, North Korean scientists have overcome a critical technological hurdle in the production of a miniaturised nuclear warhead that can fit inside its missiles.

If true, this rogue state is close to having the power to inflict unimaginable death and destruction, and now presents the gravest of threats to the region and the West.

Whatever individual feelings are of President Trump, most people should accept that under such circumstances no president of the world’s most powerful democracy could stand by and do nothing. Mr Trump’s stance is in stark contrast to the softly-softly approach of the Obama administration, which arguably allowed the situation to dangerously escalate.

Yes, Trump is guilty of using inflammatory rhetoric when he says threats against the US will be met with ‘fire and fury like the world has never seen’. But the message is at least unequivocal, and expressed in language the North Korean regime cannot fail to understand as it threatens a missile strike against the US territory of Guam in the South Pacific.

The problem with such rhetoric, however, is that if the President fails to deliver on his threat, he will seem weak.

What is needed now is not more bellicose language but calm thinking by diplomats and Mr Trump’s senior generals, some of whom have impressive pedigrees. What is also vital is that the Chinese, who could have imposed reform on North Korea – effectively their client state – years ago, now behave responsibly and sensibly.

To their credit, they and Russia have supported the new UN sanctions against Pyongyang. Those sanctions must now be given the chance to work.

Kim’s Target:

guam-map

Protecting the island is the US military’s Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, used to shoot down ballistic missiles.

. Andersen Air Force Base, located in the south-west of the island, hosts B-52 bombers, as well as B-1B Lancer bombers and B-2 Stealth bombers.

. Guam is a 210-square mile volcanic island in the Western Pacific.

. It has a population of just 160,000 with some 6,000 US troops stationed there.

. 4 nuclear submarines. A Naval Base is located in the north-east of the island.

 

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Climate Change, Donald Trump, Economic, Environment, Global warming, Government, Politics, United Nations, United States

Anger as Donald Trump pulls US out of climate deal

PARIS CLIMATE AGREEMENT

US President Donald Trump announces his decision that the United States will withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement.

The world’s consensus on fighting global warming was shattered this week as Donald Trump said he was pulling the US out of the Paris Climate Agreement.

In an address from the Rose Garden at the White House, the President said he would seek to renegotiate terms that are ‘fair to the United States.’

The move has caused an international outcry, with a string of figures from Barack Obama to EU leaders speaking out against the controversial decision.

Mr Trump said the Paris accord was ‘a self-inflicted major economic wound’ and argued his decision was based on a desire to put America first.

The 2015 deal has killed American jobs, would cost billions of dollars, and put the US at a huge disadvantage to the rest of the world, Mr Trump said.

He said: ‘In order to fulfil my solemn duty to the United States and its citizens, the US will withdraw from the Paris climate accord, but begin negotiations to re-enter either the Paris accord or a really entirely new transaction on terms that are fair to the United States.’

The Paris accord ‘is very unfair at the highest level to the United States,’ the President added.

Signed by 195 countries, the Paris Agreement commits nations to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide to stop the world overheating. By limiting global temperatures to no more than 2C above pre-industrial times, it is hoped it will stop heatwaves, droughts, rising sea levels, crop failures and storms.

But the President questioned the impact of the deal. He said he ‘represents the citizens of Pittsburgh not Paris’, said it was ‘time to make America great again,’ and that he would make full use of America’s ‘abundant energy reserves’.

He said he ‘cares deeply about the environment’ and the US would remain ‘the cleanest country on earth’.

But the Paris Agreement ‘hamstrings’ the US and has led to other countries ‘laughing at the US’.

Mr Trump said: ‘The Paris accord would undermine our economy, hamstring our workers, weaken our sovereignty, impose unacceptable legal risk, and put us at a permanent disadvantage to the other countries of the world.’

He said that there are millions of citizens out of work in the US, ‘yet under the Paris accord billions of dollars that ought to be invested right here in America will be sent to the very countries that have taken our factories and jobs away from us’. Under the terms of the accord, a deal could take at least three years – lasting until November 2020 – the same month Mr Trump is up for re-election.

Only Nicaragua and Syria have failed to sign up to the agreement and all the major industrialised nations, except for Russia, have ratified it. China and the EU have also affirmed their commitment to deeper action.

Former president Mr Obama, who signed the US up to the deal, said in a statement: ‘Even in the absence of American leadership, even as this administration joins a small handful of nations that reject the future, I’m confident that our states, cities and businesses will step up and do even more to lead the way, and help to protect for future generations the one planet we’ve got.’

The EU’s commissioner for climate change, Miguel Arias Canete, said: ‘Today is a sad day for the global community, as a key partner turns its back on the fight against climate change. The EU deeply regrets the unilateral decision by the Trump administration.’

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the decision was a ‘disappointment for global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote global security’.

French President Emmanuel Macron made a five-minute phone call to Mr Trump following his announcement. Mr Macron is believed to have said nothing was renegotiable with regard to the Paris accord. The United States and France will continue to work together, but not on the subject of the climate.

Italy, France and Germany dismissed the President’s suggestion that the global pact could be revised. In a joint statement, they said: ‘We firmly believe that the Paris Agreement cannot be renegotiated, since it is a vital instrument for our planet.’

Greenpeace UK has reacted with anger. The environmental organisation said: ‘The government that launched the Apollo space programme and help found the UN has turned its back on science and international co-operation.’

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