Stephen Lendman

The danger of Washington launching it is real, not Pyongyang. Trump’s rage for warmaking threatens everyone.

Addressing the General Assembly’s disarmament committee on Monday, DPRK UN envoy Kim In-ryong said things “reached the touch-and-go point and a nuclear war may break out any moment.”

North Korea is the world’s only country facing “an extreme and direct nuclear threat” from America, he explained, adding his nation has the right to possess nuclear weapons for self-defense.

He condemned provocative US military exercises near its territory, jointly with South Korea and/or Japan, using “nuclear assets,” he claimed - highlighting the danger of Washington perhaps staging a “secret operation aimed at the removal of our supreme leadership.”

Pyongyang completed its “nuclear force and thus became the full-fledged nuclear power which possesses the delivery means of various ranges, including the atomic bomb, H-bomb and intercontinental ballistic rockets,” he claimed.

North Korea indeed is a nuclear power, heading toward thermonuclear capability, not likely having achieved it, nor ICBMs in its arsenal yet.

Kim exaggerated Pyongyang’s military capability, including by saying “(t)he entire US mainland is within our firing range and if the US dares to invade our sacred territory even an inch, it will not escape our severe punishment in any part of the globe.”

DPRK tests demonstrated no ability to achieve what Kim claimed. The accuracy of its ballistic missiles is unclear, their range far from being able to strike US territory.

It’s unknown if Pyongyang mastered the ability to mount a nuclear warhead on a ballistic missile.

Kim said his government urges a nuclear-free world. It won’t relinquish its capabilities as long as Washington poses a serious threat to its security.

“Unless the hostile policy and the nuclear threat of the US is thoroughly eradicated, we will never put our nuclear weapons and ballistic rockets on the negotiating table under any circumstances,” he stressed.

North Korea hasn’t yet achieved above-ground nuclear detonation capability, or long-range ballistic missiles able to reach Guam - let alone Hawaii or the US mainland.

Trump rejects diplomacy, continues a war of words, maybe something more serious planned ahead.

Sanctions are counterproductive. Any not approved by the Security Council are illegal. Brussels added more for Pyongyang’s “continued and accelerated nuclear- and ballistic-missile programs,” a statement said.

On Monday, Putin signed a decree and annexes, affirming sanctions introduced in 2007 in accordance with the October 2006 Security Council resolution.

It included sanctions on 11 North Korean officials and 10 companies, along with confirming materials, technologies and products banned for export to the DPRK.

In early October, Putin warned of a “confrontational spiral over North Korea’s missile and nuclear program…fanning military rhetoric…lead(ing) nowhere.”

He urged “(a)ll parties (to) display restraint and seek a peaceful solution (through) compromise.”

Washington demands subservience to its will, backing threats with preemptive wars. Are North Korea and Iran next on Trump’s target list?

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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

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