The Growing Menace from North Korea

The Growing Menace from North Korea

October 15, 2016 | http://www.ozy.com/pov/the-growing-menace-from-north-korea/72497

John McLaughlin

The North Korean nuclear threat is nothing less than imminent – and the next US President will face a decision none of his or her predecessors have had to confront with the same urgency: how to protect against or neutralize it.

North Korea has been a key concern of US foreign policy since 1945, when the end of World War II brought the partition of the peninsula into a communist north and a non-communist south. Until a few years ago, I would have described the North as episodically dangerous, but manageable. In the last few years, though, a series of events and developments have moved the isolated state up near the top of the US “nightmare list.” First, the North’s ability to project military power far beyond its borders has grown, dangerously. Second, its leader is not just implacably hostile to the United States — he is also much more volatile and unpredictable than his predecessors.http://www.ozy.com/pov/the-growing-menace-from-north-korea/72497