The recent launch of an ICBM by North Korea signals a turning point that demands a multi-faceted economic and military response from the United States. We cannot count on NATO, China, or any other state to do what must be done to prevent the maniacal regime of Kim Jung Un from launching a nuclear armed missile in the not so distant future. Although he may not have that capability at present, he surely is endeavoring to obtain it, hoping no doubt to use it as a means for nuclear blackmail. Once he grasps that capability, he no doubts perceives himself to be in the best position to make demands under threat of nuclear attack to kow South Korea, Japan, and perhaps even the United States. China and Russia want to see this play out, because if North Korea can achieve those ends, so too can they, and the balance of world power will have shifted. To prevent this eventuality requires an immediate investment of resources to enable the United States to neutralize the threat.
Additional economic sanctions can be imposed by NATO and SEATO states but those are unlikely to effect any change in Kim Jung Un’s direction. Instead, we should presume him presently capable of launching a nuclear attack on our allies and the United States, and we should take immediate steps to use unconventional means to neutralize that threat. The United States should pursue cyber warfare options, developing viruses that can dismantle or countermand computer operations necessary to achieve launch from fixed sites. In addition, the United States should develop satellite based laser weapons and satellite, land, and sea based electromagnetic pulse based weapons targeted directly at key military operations in North Korea. We must possess the capability to fry all electronic based systems in North Korea upon confirmation of a nuclear armed warhead approaching a launch vehicle. We must possess the capability to fire laser weapons at a missile on the launch pad or shortly after dispatch, even if that requires a substantial investment to achieve the capability. We should expand deployment of anti-ballistic missile systems, even if doing so requires violation of international treaties.
In short, we need to be on a war posture now, using our vast technological capabilities in coordination with teams assigned for secret development and deployment from the private sector to come up with the most intrusive and effective electronic cyber warfare, electromagnetic pulse, and anti-ballistic missile systems for use in the region sufficient to neutralize any threat posed.
Secondarily, we need to enhance our offensive nuclear capabilities and deploy more short range intercontinental ballistic missiles to the region aimed at North Korea. We must not only be able to eliminate any potential for nuclear launch from the North, if at all possible, but we must also be prepared upon evidence of an imminent launch to obliterate the regime and the North Korean military. That will require, as Douglas MacArthur well understood in the Korean War, a nuclear strike upon the North relying on tactical nuclear weapons. We must not only take out Kim Jung Un in that eventuality but also his large army and conventional weapons systems. There is no way to do that and spare mass casualties in South Korea (and perhaps even in Japan) than by rapidly deploying tactical nuclear weapons in a massive offensive that will eliminate the regime and its military.
It should now be clear that China has no intention to reign in North Korea beyond rhetoric and modest trade restrictions. Indeed, while China loathes prospects of a nuclear war in North Korea, it relishes the intelligence it can gather from North Korean brinkmanship. It is learning whether the United States will back its allies with the full commitment that an attack upon one is an attack upon all. It is also gauging the extent to which the United States and its allies will allow itself to be a victim of nuclear blackmail.
The rapid development of an international nuclear capability by North Korea is forcing our hand. We cannot afford to limit ourselves to a reactive posture. We have to move now on the premise that nuclear war is imminent, putting in place all unconventional means to minimize the risk of launch and, if launch is unavoidable, of destroying the warhead before it reaches the United States or its allies. That requires use of the latest technological means in cyber warfare, electromagnetic pulse weapon systems, laser systems, and anti-ballistic missile systems. If Kim Jung Un attempts a launch, we cannot rest upon terminating the particular weapons; we must regard that attempt as an act of war and must respond with tactical nuclear weapons to obliterate his regime and his military and weapon systems.
© 2017 Jonathan Emord – All Rights Reserved
E-Mail Jonathan: jemord@emord.com
