The video above shows remarks made at the UN on Monday by North Korean Ambassador Kim in Ryong. The US, he says, has created a “dangerous situation” on the Korean peninsula, a situation in which “nuclear war may break out at any moment.”
You can also go here to see a video of Kim speaking in the same UN venue back on March 13. The US and South Korea at the time were conducting “Operation Key Resolve,” an annual joint military exercise on the Korean peninsula, this year’s exercise involving approximately 12,800 US soldiers along with 10,000 South Korean troops, the largest in recent memory. Kim accused the US of planning a “preemptive nuclear strike” against his country, and said it is the “defensive right” of the DPRK (North Korea) to maintain a “high alert” and to conduct nuclear and ballistic missile testing.
He also alleged that missile tests were being conducted on the Korean peninsula not only by his own country but by none other than the US and South Korea, this as part of the aforementioned training exercises–and indeed, if you go here, you can access a report that mentions a THAAD anti-missile battery drill as being part of the operation. The report also discusses something called a “Korea Massive Punishment and Retaliation” battle plan, described as a “key element” in the South’s “deterrence strategy.” The plan would consist of “surgical strikes” against political leaders in the North that would be carried out as part of a “kill chain.”
Is it any wonder, then, that the North might be a little concerned? Here is a video of a DPRK missile test carried out in August of last year:
A Russian expert says that while the North has some impressive missile capabilities, they are still far away from developing an ICBM.
Meanwhile, US officials continue their belligerent rhetoric. Displaying the typical arrogance the world often hears from the “indispensable nation,” Vice President Pence said the US is running out of “strategic patience,” while Trump insisted the North has “gotta behave.”
Yesterday the Unz Review published an article by Israel Shamir that includes a commentary on the situation in the Korean peninsula. Here is an excerpt. The link at the bottom will take you to the full piece.
North Koreans, whom I visited last year, are not a soft target like Syria or Iraq. This is the hardest target on the planet. They are used to confrontation with the US. They were born into this confrontation; they grew at the Korean War of 1950s when their country had been devastated by American bombs. Their fathers lived through the Japanese colonisation, and they are determined – never again. They have little love for Americans and for Japanese, and they would like to mete their vengeance on them and on their South Korean stooges. The Japanese and the American soldiers and sailors’ mothers should pray to their gods to restore President Trump to his senses.If Trump strikes Korea, the Koreans are likely to strike back at the US fleet, the US bases in South Korea and in Okinawa. Probably they will use their nuclear weapons. This is exactly the occasion they prepared their A- and H-bombs for. This is exactly the reason they refused the plans of denuclearisation, and they were right.A problem with American planning is its repetiousness. They always do the same routine they borrowed from a spaghetti Western. You know, the vigilante calls upon his adversary: release your hostage and drop your gun or I’ll shoot! When the fool drops the gun, the vigilante smiles madly and shoots anyway. It is not a chivalrous approach, but then, American foreign policy is charted by businessmen, not by knights.In September 2013 Obama threatened Bashar Assad into dropping his gun. Assad gave up his arsenal of chemical weapons, the only thing he could employ against nuclear-armed Israel next door. The Russians (willingly or not) supported this Israeli-American subterfuge. After Assad had voluntarily disarmed, Israel was safe; Assad couldn’t do anything to harm Israel or Americans. Then they accused him of using the chemical weapons he gave up, and attacked him.The same routine happened in Libya. They threatened Muammar Gadhafi and he gave up his weaponry. He also opened his country for the TNC to buy and operate Libyan oil and gas. They privatised and bought everything they could, and at the end they attacked Libya anyway and killed Gadhafi.You remember that Saddam Hussein agreed to all American demands, that he opened every door in his country for their inspection, and when they learned he had no WMD, they accused him of possessing WMD, attacked, destroyed his country for good and hanged him. You can’t even call the American foreign policy makers “treacherous”, like you can’t call a cyclone “strong wind”.The North Koreans had learned this lesson by heart. They are not going to drop their guns, even if the Russians and the Chinese were to beg them on their knees to do it for their sake please. Once, Russia and China were reliable, but it was in the days of Stalin and Mao, they think. Koreans know that nowadays a country has to rely on its own nuclear forces and to be ready to deliver the payload wherever it hurts.For Iraq and Syria, a nearby spot of enemy’s vulnerability (“the hostage”) was the Jewish state, but they allowed themselves to be convinced to surrender their weapons. For North Korea, the adversary’s vulnerable spots are the US bases, and Japan, an old enemy and the US ally.Donald Trump had sent a formidable force to the Korean shores. There are tens of thousands of sailors and soldiers, there are ships, nuke-bearing submarines and air force. Just now the Americans exploded their Mother-Of-All-Bombs in Afghanistan, this poor land they ruined – first, by bringing there Osama bin Laden, then by conquering it, and after all, by turning it into biggest producer of drugs in the world, this ultimate source of CIA’s independent wealth. No doubt, the US can destroy Korea – second time within our lifespan. But they can’t scare the North Koreans into submission. The Koreans can’t be scared.North Korea has no billionaires ready to serve as an American Fifth Column. They have no ethnic or gender minorities, no culture of critique. Stubborn folk, they will not surrender.Trump will have to bomb them; kill a million; and perhaps a million Japanese and Americans will be killed by the Korean payback. Trump might have his Pacific Fleet sunk just at the time when the US might need it for future confrontation with China. The Koreans can’t harm the continental US in any case, but Trump’s attack and Korean response may undermine the US naval strength, and then the US will be overrun by the same Mexicans Trump hated so much. Ironic justice, of sorts. Nobody can cause so much damage to the Republic as the President, after all. Is it possible? Yes. Not a sure thing, but a possible one.
Shamir refers to the piece, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, as “a light-headed discussion of grave affairs.”
The mainstream media can of course always be counted upon to pound the war drums. The New York Times is telling readers the DPRK’s missiles “highlight a growing ambition to put the United States within reach,” and is also claiming to see “hidden messages” in a recent military parade in Pyongyang–while an analyst for NPR, perhaps echoing Trump, is discussing ways of making North Korea “behave.”
What we are seeing, of course, is yet another case of the US waging a regime-change war against a less-powerful country with a government that has charted an independent course–something the US does not tolerate. The difference here is that North Korea is armed with a few nuclear weapons with which to fight back. And they may well use them.
Uprooted Palestinian 
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