THE “THEORY OF THE NORTH KOREAN THREAT” AND THE TRUE INTENTION OF THE U.S.

 (Essay of Kim Kwang Hak, the researcher of the IFAS of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the DPRK) The moves, describing the DPRK’s measures designed to increase the self-defensive capacity as the “threat” to peace and security, are becoming more open in the wake of the DPRK’s successful test-launch of the surface-to-surface intermediate-range strategic ballistic rocket “Hwasong-10”.

The U.S. is insisting with several assertions that “The U.S. strongly condemns this missile launch of the North Korea.”, “This is the flagrant violation of the resolutions of the UN Security Council and it only escalates and increases the tension and the instability on the Korean Peninsula in the region.”, and “North Korea should refrain from committing to further provocative actions and blackmails.” With all these assertions, the U.S., in collusion with south Korea, is again planning to conduct large scale joint military exercises aiming at the DPRK in coming August.

At present, the Korean Peninsula is returning to the status of being hovered by the black clouds of the nuclear war. This essay will lay bare not only the injustice of the “ Theory of the North Korean threat” touted by the U.S., that DPRK’s measures to increase the defense capacity pose threat to peace and stability, but also the true intentions of the U.S..

The U.S. is describing the DPRK’s measures to bolster the military capabilities for selfdefense with the nuclear force as a pivot, as the “provocative and aggravating action” which destroys the peace and stability and further aggravates the situation on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia. If that is the case, the question is whether the DPRK’s measures to increase the defensive capacity pose real “threat” and “challenges” to the peace and stability and constitute the factor of heightening tensions.

To conclude, the DPRK’s measures could never be interpreted as “threats” or “provocations” in view of the international law and reality. First, the DPRK’s measure to consolidate the national defense power is legitimate exercise of the self-defense rights which fully complies with the UN Charter and the other international laws.

In the draft of the “Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts” adopted in the 53rd session of the UN committee of the International Law in November 2001, Article 3 of Chapter 1 of Part One “The Internationally Wrongful Act of State” stipulates that “The characterization of an act of a State as internationally wrongful is governed by international law. Such characterization is not affected by the characterization of the same act as lawful by internal law.” Article 21of Chapter 5 of this Act stipulates that “the wrongfulness of an act of a State is precluded if the act constitutes a lawful measure of self-defense taken in conformity with the Charter of the United Nations.”. Article 2 of Chapter 1 of UN Charter indicates as follows: “1.

The Organization is based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all its [3] Members.” “4. All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.”. All of these articles show that no international law exists to make an issue of the DPRK’s measure of strengthening national defense capacity.

There are no phrases in the UN Charter which stipulate that the nuclear test and the launch of the ballistic rocket and the satellite pose grave “threats” to the international peace and security. The UN Secretariat fails to give an answer to the letter from the permanent representative of the DPRK to UN, who demanded it to explain about the legal basis on which our nuclear tests, satellite and ballistic rocket launches were defined as the “threat to the international peace and security”.

The U.S. is the first country which developed nuclear weapons, the only nation which had used them and maintains the largest nuclear forces in the world. If the nuclear tests of the DPRK should be called into question, the 1, 000 and odd nuclear tests, which were conducted by the U.S., should have met with the condemnation in the strongest terms. If the test launches of the ballistic rockets by the DPRK should be called into question, it is reasonable to call the U.S. in question first, which tested and possessed the largest stock of the ballistic rockets in the world. Second, the DPRK’s measures to consolidate the national defense power is the legitimate self-defensive measures in view of the level of the decade-long U.S. hostile policy towards the DPRK, of which concentrated expression is its military threat and blackmails. The data, released by the SIPRI (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute) on June 13th 2016, tells us that the stock of the US nuclear weapons amounts to 7,000. It also reveals that [4] the US administration is planning to appropriate 348 billion US$ for the modernization of the nuclear weapons during the period of 2015-2024. Such the biggest nuclear weapon state has been pursuing the hostile policy towards the DPRK for the past decade. The U.S has never recognized the sovereignty of the DPRK since its founding, and has been pursuing political, military and economic hostile policies towards it. The most important component of the U.S.’s hostile policy towards the DPRK is the military threat and blackmail, and the key point here is the nuclear threat. Actually, the U.S. is severely threatening the DPRK’s right to existence, pulling in strategic assets including strategic bombers, “B-2” and “B-52H”, stealth fighter bomber “F-22” and “Ohio-class” nuclear-powered submarine into south Korea. The U.S. is staging large-scale joint military drills aiming at the DPRK every year and is continuously converting its scale and character into that of pre-emptive manner. The DPRK pursues the development of intermediate and long-range strategic ballistic rocket and accelerates the development of smaller, lighter and diversified nuclear weapons with its main objective in deterring nuclear war threats posed by the U.S. Respected leader Kim Jong Un, the chairman of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) has declared that the true enemy that our strategic nuclear force has to face is the nuclear war itself. If a country brings in nuclear bombers, nuclear submarines, nuclear aircraft carriers and missile defense system around the U.S. and stages large-scale joint military drill every year, the U.S. would make a fuss. It is well understood when we remember how the U.S. reacted to the “Caribbean Crisis” in 1962. A nuclear war can be checked only when we depend on powerful nuclear deterrent. The bigger and the more powerful the nuclear strike capability is, the bigger the force to deter the aggression and the nuclear war is. [5] This is why the U.S., with the world largest nuclear arsenal, is continuously pouring huge fund into the modernization of the nuclear weapons. 2 Any person interested in the Korean peninsula issue would raise the question why the situation continuously falls into the worst state far from the settlement of peace on the Korean peninsula until today, 60 odd years after the sound of gunshots of war went off. The main cause of which the situation on the Korean peninsula could not be able to escape from the vicious cycle of continuous tension lies in the U.S. perverse viewpoint on the DPRK and further undisguised military threat of the U.S. which is continuously bringing in its strategic assets. Respected leader Kim Jong Un, the chairman of the WPK said in the report on the review of the work of the Central Committee of WPK at its 7th Congress, that U.S. is now clamoring about a "threat" by taking issue with our self-defensive measures designed to increase our defense capabilities, and with our peaceful space exploration; this is merely an excuse to justify its aggressive policy of hostility towards the DPRK and its strategy to achieve hegemony in Asia. The first motive of U.S. making fuss about “ Theory of the North Korean threat” is to justify their aggressive hostile policy towards the DPRK. The U.S. hostile policy towards the DPRK is the most brutal policy aiming to pull down our ideology and system by dint of its American-style “democracy” and market economy, and to swallow our whole nation and territory by dint of aggressive military power. The U.S. policy makers emphasize on every occasion that they’re not pursuing hostile policy towards the DPRK. However, the U.S. president personally stepped forward in January 2015 to describe the DPRK as “brutal authoritarian regime” and further mentioned that “Over time you will see a [6] regime like this will collapse”. This clearly shows how deceptive the U.S. rulers are. The “Theory of the North Korean threat” is U.S.’s excuse to justify their aggressive and anachronistic hostile policy towards the DPRK. The U.S. is pursuing the policy in which they continuously spread the “Theory of the North Korean threat” to continue “isolating” the DPRK by contra-posing it to international community; and constantly enhances the level of military threat against the DPRK to impede the DPRK’s construction of economic power and effort to improve people’s standard of living; and furthermore eliminate it physically. The second motive of the U.S. making a fuss about the “Theory of the North Korean threat” is to speed up in full-scale their “Asia-Pacific rebalancing” strategy for securing its supremacy in Asia by emphasizing the “North Korean threat”. In a word, the “Asia-Pacific rebalancing” strategy of the Obama administration means that the U.S. converts its political, economic and military preference to the region of Asia. The U.S. is picking the dispute over maritime dominium and “North Korean provocations” as the justification for moving their strategic pivot to Asia, but their true intention is to, based on “military superiority”, deter the growth of the countries including China and Russia which could interrupt the establishment of world order by the U.S. To meet this end, U.S. is aiming to achieve above-mentioned goals by engaging in largescale joint military drills and deploying strategic assets in the relevant region, while avoiding the direct clash with big powers. Precisely to meet this end, they’re describing the DPRK’s measures designed to increase its defense capacity as “threat”. Recently, evaluations have been presented by the experts on the Korean issue about the main intention of the U.S. for deploying “THAAD” in south Korea and strengthening U.S.-Japan- [7] south Korea trilateral military alliance. Here are some of those evaluations; “this is because China-U.S. relationship is rapidly switching from the state of being partner and competitor to the one of confronting”, “North Korea issue plays only ‘trigger role’ here making U.S. to act”, “U.S. would have made up another excuse even though North Korea had not done anything while sitting silently” etc. Just like a wolf eating up a young goat in the end on one excuse or another in the “Aesop’s fable”, so will the U.S. invent any excuse to seek their interest by making a fuss over the “North Korean threat” even though the DPRK does not take any hardline measure. The reality is that U.S.’s ambition for world dominance could and will not change but will be pursued more viciously in a more sly way. ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ The DPRK’s possession of powerful nuclear deterrent has made it possible to put an end to the U.S. history of aggression and nuclear threat, to ensure the balance of force on Korean peninsula and to promote the construction of a peaceful world without a nuclear war. However, the U.S. is still possessed by the anachronistic hostile standpoint on the DPRK and is openly posing military threat upon the DPRK by pulling in its strategic nuclear asset. In the case where a undesirable situation would be developed once again on the Korean peninsula in the future, all the responsibilities will be borne by U.S. itself which bears distorted attitude towards the DPRK and has made frivolous and strategically wrong decision such as bringing in its strategic asset. The DPRK will wage a vigorous struggle to remove, by means of its powerful nuclear deterrent, the root cause of the threat of nuclear war created by the U.S. and to safeguard peace in the Korean peninsula and rest of the world.