{"id":1753460,"date":"2022-11-28T06:30:14","date_gmt":"2022-11-28T11:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1753460"},"modified":"2022-11-28T09:49:14","modified_gmt":"2022-11-28T14:49:14","slug":"north-koreas-new-icbm-is-a-nuclear-game-changer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/north-koreas-new-icbm-is-a-nuclear-game-changer\/","title":{"rendered":"North Korea\u2019s New ICBM Is A Nuclear Game Changer"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fnorth-koreas-new-icbm-is-a-nuclear-game-changer%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1753460&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/North-Korea-ICBM.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>For more than <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2022\/nov\/27\/kim-jong-un-daughter-inspects-another-icbm-as-leader-hails-north-koreas-nuclear-power\">three decades<\/a>, the United States has sought to make the Democratic People\u2019s Republic of Korea (DPRK) an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nknews.org\/2022\/11\/kim-and-daughter-meet-icbm-launch-teams-as-nukes-declared-irreversible\/\">international pariah<\/a>. The primary goal of that strategy of isolation has been to force Pyongyang to abandon its ongoing nuclear weapons program, but an important secondary goal is to throttle the country\u2019s ballistic missile program.\n<\/p>\n[embedded content]\n<\/p>\n<p>It is increasingly clear that Washington\u2019s strategy has failed on both counts.\n<\/p>\n<p>The DPRK\u2019s small but steadily expanding nuclear arsenal renders the first objective <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cato.org\/commentary\/washingtons-stagnant-north-korea-policy-needs-change\">utterly obsolete<\/a>. North Korea\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cato.org\/commentary\/failure-launch-why-america-cant-stop-north-korean-missile-tests\">mounting number of missile tests<\/a> demonstrates the increasing irrelevance of the second objective.<\/p>\n<p>Like it or not, North Korea is fast becoming a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.19fortyfive.com\/2022\/11\/why-joe-biden-wont-embrace-arms-control-with-north-korea\/\">full-fledged nuclear weapons power<\/a> with a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.19fortyfive.com\/2022\/11\/north-korea-keeps-testing-icbms-and-we-cant-stop-them\/\">capable missile delivery system.<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>The latest ICBM test is a game-changer in two respects. First, it underscores the futility, indeed absurdity, of Washington\u2019s isolation strategy. The United States is now in the untenable and dangerous position of having <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cato.org\/commentary\/north-korea-nuclear-weapons-state-america-needs-new-strategy\">no formal relationship<\/a>\u2014much less a tolerably cordial one\u2014with the world\u2019s latest nuclear weapons power. Second, the prospect of a DPRK fleet of ICBMs in the next few years significantly alters the risk-benefit calculation of the U.S.\u2019s extended deterrence commitment to the Republic of Korea (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.19fortyfive.com\/2022\/11\/why-south-korea-could-build-a-small-nuclear-weapons-arsenal\/\">South Korea<\/a>). Soon, North Korea will be capable of launching a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.19fortyfive.com\/2022\/03\/north-koreas-icbm-test\/\">nuclear strike<\/a> against the American homeland in the event of a conflict that has spiraled out of control.<\/p>\n<p>Washington\u2019s strategy needs to change on both fronts. It is now imperative to conduct a comprehensive dialogue with Pyongyang to normalize diplomatic relations between the two countries. Among other steps, that process must include a peace treaty (replacing the 1953 Armistice), finally ending the state of war on the Korean Peninsula, the lifting of U.S. and international sanctions against Pyongyang, and the establishment of formal, bilateral diplomatic ties.\n<\/p>\n<p>The United States also must transform its security relationship with South Korea.\u00a0 It was a relatively low-risk venture to provide a military shield to a weak client state in the context of the Cold War. Whether correctly or not, U.S. viewed the DPRK as little more than a puppet of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.19fortyfive.com\/2021\/12\/china-is-becoming-the-soviet-union\/\">Soviet Union<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.19fortyfive.com\/2022\/11\/america-needs-a-real-ambassador-to-china-not-to-the-ccp\/\">Communist China<\/a>. In that context, a new war on the Peninsula would have had far wider importance than being merely a fight between two small, rival Korean states. It would have been the opening salvo in an escalating East-West confrontation. Such a stark ideological struggle no longer defines a far more complex geopolitical environment. Although its economic importance to the United States has grown, South Korea\u2019s strategic relevance has declined.<\/p>\n<p>Until recently, U.S. leaders also felt comfortable offering a military guarantee to the ROK to deter an attack from Pyongyang, secure in the knowledge that the DPRK could not strike the U.S. homeland. We no longer have that luxury.\n<\/p>\n<p>It is time to phase out the \u201cmutual\u201d military alliance with South Korea. At the time that alliance was established in the early 1950s, the ROK was a war-ravaged, poverty-stricken country incapable of providing for its own defense. Today it is one of Asia\u2019s most successful and prosperous \u201ceconomic tigers,\u201d with an economy estimated to be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statista.com\/statistics\/1035390\/south-korea-gdp-comparison-with-north-korea\/\">at least 40 times larger<\/a> than that of its communist rival. South Korea is now fully capable of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.19fortyfive.com\/2022\/11\/poland-is-building-a-military-machine-to-fight-russia-if-it-has-to\/\">building whatever military forces<\/a> are needed to defend its security\u2014<a href=\"https:\/\/www.19fortyfive.com\/2022\/11\/blame-north-korea-and-china-if-south-korea-builds-nuclear-weapons\/\">including a nuclear deterrent<\/a>. Seoul\u2019s continuing military dependence on the United States has been a policy choice to save money. It is not even remotely a policy necessity. U.S. leaders need to inform their South Korean counterparts that the defense gravy train will no longer operate\n<\/p>\n<p>Even more important than ending the ROK\u2019s free-riding ways is to drastically change Washington\u2019s stance regarding an independent nuclear arsenal for that country. Generations of U.S. officials have robotically embraced an insistence on nuclear nonproliferation as a global policy, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cato.org\/commentary\/not-all-forms-nuclear-proliferation-are-equally-bad\">regardless of circumstances<\/a>. Washington insists the membership in the global nuclear weapons club must remained closed\u2014despite India\u2019s and Pakistan\u2019s forced entry in the 1990s and North Korea\u2019s steady emergence as a de facto nuclear weapons power. It is a policy that is detached from reality. To the extent it works at all, it guarantees that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.19fortyfive.com\/2022\/09\/the-sneaky-way-iran-could-build-an-icbm\/\">rogue states<\/a> will have such weapons, while stable, nonaggressive democratic countries remain nonnuclear\u2014and heavily dependent on the United States for their defense.<\/p>\n<p>It is an unhealthy situation both for the United States and its security dependents. It is especially unhealthy in the case of South Korea. The ROK is betting Washington will honor its security commitment even at the risk of a North Korean strike on the American homeland. But such an extended deterrence promise is inherently less credible than a robust primary deterrent. A South Korean nuclear arsenal would be far more likely to deter North Korea than a fraying promise from Washington that the United States will <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cato.org\/commentary\/us-celebrates-alliance-seoul-south-korea-worth-nuclear-war\">risk<\/a> mushroom clouds sprouting above multiple American cities to deter DPRK military aggression against the ROK.\n<\/p>\n<p>We must not dither and then try to adjust Washington\u2019s obsolete Korea policy in the midst of a crisis. The imminent prospect of North Korea having a nuclear arsenal in the form of warheads on ICBMs requires a drastic, immediate policy transformation.\n<\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cato.org\/people\/ted-galen-carpenter\">Ted Galen Carpenter<\/a>, a senior fellow in defense and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute and a contributing editor at 19FortyFive, is the author of 13 books and more than 1,100 articles on international affairs. His latest book is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Unreliable-Watchdog-Media-Foreign-Policy\/dp\/1952223334\">Unreliable Watchdog: The News Media and U.S. Foreign Policy<\/a> (2022).<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For more than three decades, the United States has sought to make the Democratic People\u2019s Republic of Korea (DPRK) an international pariah. The primary goal of that strategy of isolation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1753463,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1753460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1753460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1753460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1753460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1753463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1753460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1753460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1753460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}