Verbal fires are continuing to rage over North Korea. It was started by US President Donald Trump in his maiden speech at the UN General Assembly, where he called Kim Jong Un a “rocket man” and said that America may be forced to totally destroy the rogue nation if it persisted with its nuclear programme. That speech came amid sharply escalating tensions between the US and North Korea.
North Korea being North Korea, it was expected that the Kim regime would spit an equal and even nastier amount of fire and fury. Addressing the annual gathering of world leaders at the UN, North Korea’s Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho called Trump a “mentally deranged person full of megalomania,” and said targeting the US mainland with its rockets was inevitable after “Mr Evil President” made an “irreversible mistake” by calling Mr Kim “rocket man”. He said Pyongyang was now “only a few steps away from the final gate of completion of the state’s nuclear force”. Hours after the speech, Trump hit back. He warned Pyongyang’s foreign minister that if “he echoes thoughts” of the country’s leader Kim Jong Un they both “won’t be around much longer”.
Tensions between North Korea and the US have increased in the past few weeks and intensified when the North conducted its sixth and largest nuclear test on September 3. It has also threatened to test a hydrogen bomb over the Pacific.
There will be no end to this bellicose rhetoric and threats if both sides choose to indulge in it, but such threats won’t bring them any closer to a solution to the crisis. While the leaders of a rogue state whose only objective is to acquire nuclear weapons can spit venom and fury, leaders of democratic states should refrain from fanning the flames.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov struck a more cautionary note saying a softer touch was needed to defuse the crisis. He warned of a “very unpredictable nosedive” if Washington does not ease up on its fiery rhetoric with Pyongyang. He also said the US would not take military action against North Korea because “they know for sure that it has nuclear bombs.” “I’m not defending North Korea. I’m just saying that almost everyone agrees with such an analysis,” he said.
There is a danger that the insults and threats will trigger a war. Kim-Jong-Un is unpredictable and reckless. He likes provocation and insults. Competing with him with tit-for-tat rhetoric will blur the difference between him and other leaders.
