Ignoring North Korea’s nuclear threat could prove to be a dangerous mistake
With so many foreign policy challenges to address — including the threat of terrorist attacks, the tenuous security situation in Iraq and Afghanistan, a revanchist Russia and an expansionist China — the Obama administration has paid only limited attention to North Korea’s expanding nuclear and missile capabilities. This could prove a costly and dangerous mistake.
It is too easy to dismiss as bluster the near-constant stream of threats coming out of Pyongyang. But while the world looks the other way, North Korea’s young and isolated leader, Kim Jong Un, is aggressively pursuing four parallel military initiatives: expanding the amount of fissile material (plutonium and highly enriched uranium) the country possesses; producing a longer-range missile capable initially of reaching targets in the Pacific and eventually the continental United States; developing a smaller and lighter nuclear warhead to sit atop a long-range missile; and seeking a survivable, strategic “deterrent” via a small missile-launch submarine or mobile, land-based missile launch system.… Seguir leyendo »