Opinion: All bark and no bite
April 7, 2013
Julie Selby
Julie Selby is a freshman journalism major and columnist for the Daily Kent Stater. Contact her at [email protected].
Kim Jong Un seems just like a boy desperately trying to prove himself a man. The young leader of North Korea is making headlines for his severe and often graphic threats towards the United States and the rest of the world. Tensions reached a new high when the U.S. and South Korea began joint military exercises. North Korea took this act as provocation, and thus began an onslaught of threats and foolish actions.
The North recently made a bold claim of vowing “unprecedented nuclear strikes” against South Korea and the U.S. With a shrug of the shoulders, experts claim that the North is currently not capable of placing a nuclear warhead on a long-range missile. Its missile technology is also barely capable of reaching Hawaii and has been known to be years behind the rest of the world due to its severe isolation, as the April 2012 missile launch failure affirms.
North Korea declared the 1953 Korean Armistice Agreement invalid in March. The armistice stands as a truce, keeping both the North and the South from attacking one another. Declaring the armistice invalid gives both sides the power to attack one another and reignite the Korean War. Conversations between the two Koreas have also been gravely hindered by the severing of their main communication lines.
Although scrapping the armistice is absolutely detrimental to keeping the peace between the Koreas, Kim has not done much to solidify his claims of being able to blow up his enemies. No missiles have launched and no bombs have blown since early February. There has been no invasion of the South. If Kim is so eager to annihilate all those against the North, why hasn’t he done so by now?
Even if Kim does follow through with his wild claims, the U.S. is always at the ready to intercept missiles and reiterate their power with their bases and ships placed all throughout southern Asia.
These threats and actions by Kim are commonly thought to be an act of dominance. The young leader is trying to prove himself as a powerful and feared individual to the rest of the world, at which he is not doing a very good job. His threats are barely backed up by his weapons and are hardly being taken seriously by the citizens of the United States.
I would surely be shaking in my boots if there were any facts confirming that North Korea can blow up the United States in a rain of nuclear hellfire. But because it is decades behind in technology, is years behind in experience and is making enemies with most of the Earth, I plan to keep myself updated and informed while quietly giggling to the Kim Jong Un memes dispersing all throughout the Internet.