On Saturday 10th October North Korea unveiled a new colossal inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM), a missile which some analysts claim could be the world’s largest (Routers 12/10/2020). This new missile showcases the growing sophistication of North Korean military technology. But in the context of today’s world, nuclear weapons may be North Korea’s only deterrent against the ever-eager strong hand of U.S. aggression.
Reading the headlines, the reclusive North Korea and their persistent armament programme may seem insane and paranoid. Indeed, the United States’ leadership in the struggle to disarm North Korea may even seem noble. But lurking behind their pretext of protecting world peace against “little rocket man” Kim Jong Un is the ignored truth that the United States itself has proven to be the modern world’s greatest threat.
In fact, against the history of U.S. aggression North Korea’s behaviour loses its irrationality. From Vietnam to Iraq, from Libya to Guatemala, the United States war machine has never hesitated to brutalise its enemies in the name of American interests, and North Korea is no stranger to the American brand of brutalism. In the 1950’s the United States military turned its talons on North Korea during the Korean War, and engaged in a bombing campaign which Blaine Harden, a former Washington Post reporter, described as “long, leisurely and merciless” (Irish Times 20/09/2017).
During the course of the war the United States dropped over half a million tons of bombs. Napalm and chemical weapons were unleashed against the population. U.S. warplanes, having destroyed all military targets, bombed farms, dams, factories, and hospitals. Millions died and almost all of their cities were levelled. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, distressed by the what he saw declared “I had seen the war-battered cities of Europe… but I had not seen devastation until I had seen Korea” (The Intercept 3/5/2020).
The American bombs entrenched a general anxiety into the consciousness of the North Korean people. They remember only too well the pain of being under America’s boot. As Columbian University Charles Armstrong put it: “the American air war left a deep and lasting impression” and “gave North Koreans a collective sense of anxiety and fear of outside threats, that would continue long after the war’s end” (The Intercept 3/5/2020). Having experienced such terror and destruction, is there any wonder why North Korea developed nuclear weapons?
Now long into the twenty first century, relations with North Korea remain tense. But 70 years after the Korean War little has changed. North Korea still finds itself surrounded by great and hostile powers. Whilst the western press depicts North Korea as the land of the crazy and Kim Jong Un as a fat little lunatic, the world community imposes debilitating sanctions upon their economy, President Trump regularly threatens North Korea with total destruction and the United States conducts annual joint military exercises with the South Korean army in South Korea.
But North Korea is the rule, not the exception. This overwhelming hostility is based in a world of United States imperialism, showcased most recently by their efforts to destabilise Venezuela and their sponsoring of last years’ successful coup of Bolivia’s democratically elected president (The Guardian 18/09/2017). It is worth considering if these acts of imperialism, as with the wars in Iraq and Vietnam, would still have happened if those countries had had access to nuclear weapons.
At the weapons unveiling on Saturday, Kim Jong Un echoed an intention repeated by other North Korean officials: “We will continue to build our national defence power and self-defensive war deterrence,” (Reuters 10/09/2020). It seems, a nuclear deterrent could be North Koreas only hope at retaining independence against the looming threat of U.S. imperialist aggression.
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