News analysis |
Russian President, Vladimir Putin has warned against the imposition of tougher sanctions and military pressure on Pyongyang as he feels that instead of deterring Kim’s regime these policies will lead to large scale human sufferings. He made these remarks on the final day of the BRICS summit in Xiamen, China.
DPRK must not get the impression that they will be denuclearized anytime with a counterforce strike. Such a signal will effectively put the US at a risk of a counter value strike, something which will lead to what Putin called the “global catastrophe”
Pointing to the fact that Kim Jong Un remains unfazed, Putin said: “Ramping up military hysteria in such conditions is senseless; it’s a dead end.It could lead to a global, planetary catastrophe and a huge loss of human life. There is no other way to solve the North Korean nuclear issue, save that of peaceful dialogue.”
He said this a day after tensions have escalated to a dangerous level after Pyongyang’s test of a Hydrogen Bomb on Sunday. The test has not only gone a long way to making DPRK’s earlier threats credible but it has led to speculations of carnage more traction.
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Alluding to Kim’s vulnerabilities and the importance of nuclear weapons to his survival, Putin added: “We all remember what happened with Iraq and Saddam Hussein. His children were killed, I think his grandson was shot, the whole country was destroyed and Saddam Hussein was hanged … We all know how this happened and people in North Korea remember well what happened in Iraq. They will eat grass but will not stop their program as long as they do not feel safe.”
South Korea continues with its fire drills and the US continues to ratchet-up verbal threats Kim may just go a step further and try to mount a warhead on the ICBM targeted towards Guam, Japan, South Korea or CONUS for that matter
Putin echoed the viewpoint of many who believe that efforts to deter or compel Kim will only hasten the process of nuclearization. South Korea who is mulling over the redeployment of US Tactical Nuclear Weapons, carried out live missile drills while predicting that Kim will test his ICBM pretty soon. Seoul’s the defense minister, Song Young-moo, said “all available military options” were being considered to address the growing threat from North Korean missiles.
Read more: Trump’s sabre-rattling: Is a nuclear war between US and North Korea…
“Begging for war” remark
After Trump’s customary threats and the somewhat nuanced one from Mattis, it seemed as if the US decided that talks are being discarded as a policy option when its envoy to the UN spoke in the Security Council. Nikki Haley said that Kim is begging for war by his reticence to be acknowledged as a nuclear power. “War is never something the United States wants,” she said. “We don’t want it now but our country’s patience is not unlimited.”
North Korea’s Kim Jong Un is “begging for war,” US Ambassador to UN Nikki Haley says https://t.co/vcnGmd3MFs pic.twitter.com/0mJwhXpcOe
— CNN (@CNN) September 4, 2017
She pointed out that the last diplomatic option will be to invoke the strongest possible sanctions. However, if recent history is anything to go by, DPRK has given little regard to this so-called compliant and deterrent.
With talks more or less out of the window as evident by statements from top US officials, Kim may sense that an attack, either a counterforce strike or a conventional military incursion is imminent
The remarks by Haley will again not go down well with a small, weak and vulnerable nuclear-state. With talks more or less out of the window as evident by statements from top US officials, Kim may sense that an attack, either a counterforce strike or a conventional military incursion is imminent. This will more likely than not compel him to ramp up his activities; an ICBM test cannot be ruled-out.
Read more: Korean Peninsula: Nuclear flash point
However, if South Korea continues with its fire drills and the US continues to ratchet-up verbal threats Kim may just go a step further and try to mount a warhead on the ICBM targeted towards Guam, Japan, South Korea or CONUS for that matter. In order to arrest a potentially cataclysmic situation, DPRK must not get the impression that they will be denuclearized anytime with a counterforce strike. Such a signal will effectively put the US at a risk of a counter value strike, something which will lead to what Putin called the “global catastrophe”.