It would seem that a couple of vastly overgrown playground bullies are in possession of the neuclear codese and are currently threatening each other and world peace. One is Donald Trump, the President of the United States of America and the other is Kim Jong-un, the supreme leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea or North Korea. Both nuclear nations are engaging in some scary sabre rattling and some of the world is dreading the possible consequences:
As recently as April 2017, Donald Trump paid the North Korean leader a pretty fulsome compliment. He thought coming to power at age 27, dealing with tough generals and others and holding on to power the way he did made him a “pretty smart cookie”. He added that he would be “honoured” to meet him.
The UN mission of North Korea then said that the South Korean intelligence agencies and the United States were plotting to kill Kim Jong-un. Apparently, the CIA and the south Koreans were sending “hideous terrorists’ group” to exterminate the supreme leader with biochemical agents. This apparently amounted to a “declaration of war”. This was just a few days later in May.
Trump spoke to the Chinese president about "the growing threat posed by North Koreas nuclear and ballistic missile programs,” Speaking on another ocassion, he indicated that the US had reached the end of its patience and also referred to North Korea as a “menace”.
In the end of July, North Korea test fired its intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) which was seen as an extremely provocative threat to the Americans. The missile would have major US cities such as LA, Chicago and Denver; possibly even New York and Boston within its range.
For its repeated defiance of the nuclear test ban, the UN Security Council passed a resolution imposing strict sanctions against North Korea. This would serve to decrease the already meager export revenues for the Koreans.
In response to the UN sanctions, Pyongyang said that North Korea would make the US pay a "thousand-fold for all the heinous crimes" that they had committed against them.
Donald Trump asked the Koreans to stop making threats and then promptly made a few of his own. Listen in to his now famous Fire and Fury speech; something that standup comedians have lampooned endlessly since. While a four star general thought the treat was a real blunder, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that this was a strong message from the president in a language that the Koreans would understand.
North Korea declared that Trump's threats were ‘nonsense’ and said that the US president was a “guy bereft of reason”. North Korean General Kim Rak Gyom said North Korea was planning to fire four Hwasong-12 rockets more than 2,000 miles over Japan to "hit the waters 30 to 40 km away from Guam". Guam is a U.S. island territory in Micronesia.
In spite of the high octane rhetoric and the bullying and the threats, experts feel that actual war is unlikely. No one wants war. Right now there are a lot of words; so far there have been no actions (thankfully). This has happened before and diplomatic solutions have been found. As of now, neither unhinged utterance from either side is likely to come to fruition; the two world bullies will hopefully not get to play with their dangerous fire crackers just yet.
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