As part of their journalistic training, members of the sixth grade Taipei American School Model United Nations team are writing opinions, news articles, and primers on the current state of political affairs. Our second article in this series is Matthew Hsieh’s opinion on why North Korea is not a danger to the international community.
by Matthew Hsieh
Many people think North Korea has nuclear weapons and many accurate missiles that can reach US ground. But is North Korea really a major danger to the world?
Unfortunately, some technologies that North Korea possesses are dangerous. North Korea’s long range missiles are enough to reach America. Other than nuclear weapons, however, North Korea is harmless. Their airpower is much weaker than the United States. The best fighter jets of North Korea is the MIG-29, an undated plane that is far worse compared to the F-35 Lightning II or the F-22 Raptor Stealth fighters of the US. Although North Korea’s technology gets more and more advanced, the world can easily disrupt their plans. If North Korea really fires long-range missiles, countries can use the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missile interceptor or Patriot missiles to easily take down enemies in the sky. China is also reducing trade with North Korea because Trump is pushing them to stop all businesses involving the North. That makes it even harder for them to develop technology and keep a good economy.
Although North Korean leader Kim Jong-un threatens to attack Guam with nuclear weapons, these are only bluffs. Their foreign minister Ri Yong-ho also threatens to shoot down the US B-1B bombers during military exercises, but these actions never happened. In order fight back, Trump says he will completely destroy North Korea. The United States, Japan and South Korea are often performing joint military exercises to warn the North. Many people believe North Korea’s goal is just to receive money from South Korea or the World. According to axios.com, North Korea is running low on funds for their nuclear program. To cut off most of their finance sources, the United Nations passed 21 sanctions against North Korea since the 1950s. Since they are getting more and more isolated (because of the sanctions passed by the UN), Kim Jong Un is trying to negotiate and get the sanctions eased.
Despite the fact that North and South Korea officials met for the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, the North is trying to get China on their side by meeting with Xi Jinping in March, 2018. Many sources reveal that North Korea even have trouble getting food! Sources say some soldiers get time off to gather food. A soldier named Oh Chong Song even escaped to the South. He was shot multiple times and parasites were found in his body, indicating life in the North isn’t so nice.
While Trump and Kim are meeting, many experts believe that no points or solutions will be made. The meeting might even increase the pressure on each side. The president of South Korea, Moon Jae In, met with King Jong Un on April 27th. Although they agreed to end the Korean War (they only stopped the war in 1953, they didn’t officially end it) and sign a peace agreement. The two countries are working on permanent peace, and North Korea surprisingly agreed to denuclearize the peninsula. According to CNBC, complete denuclearization is hard to accomplish. Because of the expanded economic sanctions, North Korea changed from shooting missiles to meeting with officials from the South and the US. Yesterday, a peace treaty ending the Korean War was even brokered between the two Koreas, indicating a new era of peace from the North Korean regime.