Joint military drills by US and South Korea are a warning to Kim

Reading Time:1 minute

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un celebrates the successful test-firing of the intercontinental ballistic missile Hwasong-14, at an undisclosed location on July 4. Photo: AFP

Published: 4:55pm, 14 Jul 2017Updated: 12:40pm, 15 Oct 2020

I refer to Rainbow Or’s letter (“Talking is far better than sabre-rattling”, July 8).

Your correspondent believes the joint missile launches by the US and South Korea were provocative, and that negotiations are the best way of finding a solution in the Korean peninsula.

While these are good sentiments, I wonder if they are really feasible in the current climate.

Negotiations can only work when all parties are working towards the same goal. However, past history has shown that North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, is good at fooling the international community with displays of fake goodwill – which risk Washington and Seoul relaxing their vigilance.

If economic sanctions and joint military drills fail to deter Pyongyang from its goal of developing nuclear weapons, why should we fare any better with negotiations?

Ms Or warns against sabre-rattling, but who is doing the sabre-rattling? Think about the rhetoric coming from North Korea and its threats to wipe out the US imperialist and its puppet South Korea. It is North Korea that has been provocative with, for example, the bombardment of the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong in 2010. Also, there have been many cases of abductions of South Koreans, in addition to Pyongyang’s reckless nuclear weapons programme.