People of my generation have all heard their parents talk about the fear that the Soviet missile crisis in Cuba in October 1962 inspired. That was certainly the case in my family. Today, the atomic risk comes to us from the distant plains of Ukraine. What if, in fact, we weren’t looking from the right side of the planet?
Rather than being hypnotized by what is happening in the East, we should look to the West. Since the end of September, North Korea has been firing a record number of missiles from all sides.
These are tests every time, but which generate no less panic as they cross the skies of northern Japan or sink into the sea, very close to the territorial waters of South Korea.
No doubt, Pyongyang has engaged in an escalation of threats which, in the current state of relations between the great powers, makes us fear the worst. Until a few years ago, better dialogue between Washington and Beijing on the one hand, and Washington and Moscow on the other, ensured that Kim Jong-un’s temper tantrums were confined to the Korean peninsula.
NUCLEAR EXPLOSION IN THREE, TWO, ONE…
It now seems inevitable that the multiplication of these missile tests will be followed by a seventh nuclear bomb test. And according to experts, the mere fact that Russian President Vladimir Putin was able to raise the nuclear specter in the conflict he sparked in Ukraine sanctions the bellicose outbursts of the young North Korean leader.
Diplomats, generals and military strategists juggle responses to this mix of blackmail and real danger. Some argue that it is time to consider recognizing North Korea as a nuclear power.
The young dictator could certainly boast of having fulfilled the aspirations of his father and his grandfather, Kim Il-sung, the founder of communist Korea. At the same time, it is believed, it will be easier to impose on it inspections and treaties that will frame its nuclear program.
At the other extreme, at the Pentagon, we do not get bogged down in periods and commas: an attack with atomic weapons would lead to “the end of the Kim Jong-un regime”. North Korea has closed itself off to the rest of the world and one can only hope that this kind of warning is heard.
KEEP A COOL HEAD
Reclusive and paranoid, the power in Pyongyang may be producing such a fuss these days to remind people of its existence, when we only have it in eastern Europe. It must be said that the country has been crumbling, since 2017, under sanctions that are stifling its economy; any means are probably good to try to tear oneself away from it.
I remembered earlier my parents’ comments about the Cuban Missile Crisis. Looking back, I see as much fear of some form of nuclear apocalypse as an unshakable admiration for John F. Kennedy who, in addition to countless other qualities in their eyes, had saved North America from the worst of tragedies.
Sixty years later, there is no JFK in the White House. Just Joe Robinette Biden who sees an isolated thirty-year-old in need of attention getting angry 11,000 kilometers away. We almost miss Khrushchev.