Welcome back to the never-ending-story of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un and his love-affairs with missiles and the A-bomb.
The next new chapter in the row of atomic provocations month by month in 2016:
The North Korean news agency KCNA is excited (again): A new missile engine for an intercontinental missile would “guarantee” the ability to launch a nuclear strike on the US mainland.
And the little dictator who was there was amused. He said: The country would now be able to “keep any cesspool of evils in the earth including the US mainland within our striking range.”
- The reaction in Washington: “We call on North Korea to refrain from actions and rhetoric that further destabilize the region and focus instead on taking concrete steps toward fulfilling its commitments and international obligations.””
- More concrete: The US wants to deploy a US missile defence system to the Korean peninsula.
- This defense system is strongly opposed by North Korea, but as well by Russia and China. Beijing told the THAAD anti-missile system would “undermine its nuclear deterrent”. But why don’t they tell their friends in North Korea to stop the provocations?
- Kim Jong-un even threatened a fifth nuclear test soon, in time with the political congress next month.
North Korea threatened the US with a nuclear strike already, at end of March.
And they told the world about a Korean bomb that can destroy New York.
2016 had been a year of provocations from North Korea and it is time to stop his bomb now.