A Russian expert quotes North Korean diplomats as saying they’re worried about a growing “misperception” among Americans that their country would launch a nuclear strike on the US as soon as they had the capability.
Alexander Vorontsov, head of the Department for Korean and Mongolian Studies and the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russia Academy of Sciences, said in a Wednesday article on 38 North that the regime is aware how “suicidal” such a move would be.
“It would be suicidal to attack the USA first and especially with nuclear weapons. We understand that it would be the last day of our country,” Vorontsov quoted one diplomat he met with in Pyongyang in November as saying.
The North Koreans were reacting to US polls indicating that a majority of Americans now believe the US cannot allow North Korea to acquire a missile capable of delivering a nuclear weapon to the US mainland.
But Vorontsov also noted in his article for the specialist website on North Korean affairs that Pyongyang remains convinced that the Pentagon is preparing for war on the peninsula. Kim Jong-un’s government also seems determined to achieve nuclear parity with the US and doesn’t seem interested in agreeing to a “freeze” on such weapons development as proposed by Moscow and Beijing, the analyst said.
The North’s diplomats also pointed to a sharp gap in perceptions between Americans and South Koreans about the seriousness of the crisis.
“The North Koreans see growing signs, reflecting President Donald Trump’s “America First” principle, that the United States is prepared to accept the terrible loss of lives that would result from a large-scale military conflict with North Korea,” Vorontsov said. “In contrast, South Korean public opinion continues to believe that president Trump would never start a war in Korea—and that the tension, crisis-like atmosphere, and belligerent rhetoric are all posturing.”
Nuclear parity then dialogue?
Vorontsov says the North Koreans he spoke with reiterated that they’re striving to reach some kind of “nuclear parity” with the US. But they emphasized that this was not to deliver an unprovoked first strike against the US mainland.
“When we expressed doubt regarding the North Korean ability to achieve this parity, their rather uncertain explanations led us to believe they, more accurately, have some kind of “specific asymmetrical” nuclear parity in mind,” Vorontsov said. “Finally they told us: ‘We are diplomats, not military guys. Only our leader knows the issue in full.’” They also repeated the point that nuke weapons are being developed to preserve the survival of North Korea.
“It would benefit both sides to establish a US-DPRK dialogue that would allow Pyongyang to clarify its real intentions and reach consensus with the US on a plan to resolve the nuclear issue,” Vorontsov concluded.
……then US stole from who?
Maybe in the beginning,US invented gunpowder too.
China bought the Su 35 to use the engines. Russia refused to sell them the stand-alone engines.
The American people will believe what ever US wants them to believe, there is no way to beat the propaganda machine.
Nuclear weapons are the only effective defense against the USA, forget about the American people, the US government sure has.
American people are too naive about world politic..They always feel their country is the centre of the earth
Yes agreed..Having nukes will stop bigger and mightier country from breaching smaller country border
The whole world has gone insane. Creating weapons to avert war is the height of insane irony
It is ironic but not insane, the best way to ensure peace is to prepare for war. Haven’t you noticed that Nuclear armed countries are sanctioned but never invaded.
Noel Mullings so we are incapable of attaining true peace. The only thing keeping us from extinction is fear. What a life.
The growing misperceptin that NK, the Chinese Communist regime’s puppet state, will strike first, is a direct result of Chinese aid enabling such capability, the NK dictator being like Hitler, and the numerous test missiles reaching toward Japan and the USA.
Personally, it looks as though, NK is hell bent on a suicide mission, and the Chinese regime, is enjoying the circus show.
Quit now Chinese Communist dictatorship.
Whether agreed or not the China Russia proposal by N Korea ,America will not be able to attack N Korea because of China,Russian opposition.Nuke is not an ordinary bomb which has limitation of area of radiation,so using of such weapons is not an easy matter In addition to that point America have many in an around of peninsula where large number of troops are stationed,who are comes under the
Jurisdiction of missile strike. So there will be no nuclear war,on the other hand it is possible in the ME because of rivalries between muslim nation which will give US and Israel an opportunity to attack Iran and Oak nuclear sites in first opportunity.More over there is India who will surely try to sabotage Oak.
Read Pakistan in place of oac
Mark Vende the world as it is is pitiful, powerful countries rely on fear to achieve a state of false peace, this system is so unstable that the weight of a feather can cause something terrible, and the most terrifying thing is that a lunatic man is in charge of the most powerful military in the world
This news would be the opposite of what the NK diplomats would have uttered…Good news for the people of US…Labled as fake news by their own President…crazy
Thomas Daniel Kuhn- you’re an idiot. The US could import cheap good from half a dozen other countries in the event of a trade war -how many other countries could China send IMPORTS TO? Morons like you are the ones with your own facts.
Tell that to Gaddafi
This is all the cumulative result of US global ambitions, consistently applying the old propaganda of communist scare, in the name of democracy and freedom.
It first used it in its war in Vietnam, justifying it as necessary to prevent a domino effect, i.e. the fall of that country into communism would result in all countries of Southeast Asia to likewise fall one after another.
Only idiots do not yet know that the US is the GLOBAL BULLY.????????????
Zia Naqvi the way things are going right now is not deterrence but stockpiling for an enevitable showdown with nobody winning at the end. Everybody is contributing to the escalation of eventual extinction. And sadly most of you agree
North Korea is never going to Attack USA first.
How else do you deal with a country that thrives on war and destruction of others, and now a "Shit head " president with the biggest button. Deterrence. I like the North Koreans for their courage to challenge a bully.
Aminu Audi escalation is not a solution it is just delaying the inevitable. It is not actually a deterrence. If you think these lunatics gives a damn if people die or not, you are dreaming. If they cared at all, no weapon would even exist. There will be no balance. They will always outdo one another. It is not balance they are after. They feed on the fear of people to sponsor their lunacy. So far it is working as see a lot of people promoting their perverted ideas
Pitiful indeed!
No need actually to go to war with North Korea. If you watched CNN’s "Escape from North Korea" wherein a North Korean soldier spectacularly escaped to Soth Korean side of the DMZ. The South Korean doctor who operated on the nokor soldier found 52 (holycrap, 52) parasites in his intestines. They said he is malnourished. Therefore there is an easy solution: Just stop the food aid. They, including Jong Un will die of hunger.