It looks as if the United States is going to end the long-standing armistice on the Korean Peninsula sooner rather than later.
On March 22, President Trump tweeted that war hawk John Bolton will replace relative moderate Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster as his National Security Advisor on April 9. Bolton is a proponent of the Bush Doctrine of preventive attacks when they are considered to be justified.
However, the Bush Doctrine proved to be a disaster for both Iraq and the United States. As National Security Advisor, Bolton will once again advocate a preventive attack, this time against North Korea.
In a September 3, 2017, Fox News interview, Bolton declared that the only option left to address the North Korean nuclear threat is “to end the regime in North Korea” by striking first.
“Anybody who thinks that more diplomacy with North Korea, more sanctions, whether against North Korea, or an effort to apply sanctions against China, is just giving North Korea more time to increase its nuclear arsenal,” Bolton warned. “We have fooled around with North Korea for 25 years, and fooling around some more is just going to make matters worse.”
US-North Korea Relations Remain at Status Quo
Currently, the situation between the U.S. and North Korea is a status quo. There have been no North Korean ballistic missile launches, no North Korean hydrogen bomb tests or any combined military exercises between the U.S. and South Korea this year. These exercises are always perceived by the North Korean leadership as preparations for an invasion.
North Korea’s last ballistic missile launch was almost four months ago, a Hwasong-15 on November 30, 2017. The last hydrogen bomb test was conducted on September 3, 2017, almost seven months ago. The last U.S.-South Korean military exercise was Ulchi-Freedom Guardian, which was conducted from August 21 to August 31, 2017, almost seven months ago.
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