Tensions Rising: North Korea vs. The United States

Craig Anderson and Jarryd Gill

         Over the last few months, Donald Trump, the president of the United States, and Kim Jong Un, the leader of North Korea have been sending threats to each other. It all started when North Korea started to test nuclear weapons, such as a long range ballistic missile that supposedly has the potential to reach the United States according to Kim Jong Un. Trump, sending threats via Twitter, is creating news by stating what the consequences would be if North Korea did in fact send a missile that reached the United States. Trump went to Twitter to tell his fellow Americans that a North Korean attack on the US won’t happen, “North Korea just stated that it is in the final stages of developing a nuclear weapon capable of reaching parts of the U.S. It won’t happen!” Kim Jong Un responded to these tweets calling Trump a “Dotard” which translates to a senile old man. North Korea’s foreign minister Ri Yong-ho, stated that they plan on testing a hydrogen bomb over the pacific ocean. “I think Donald Trump is handling this very poorly, it is agitating and foolish, I think that behind the scenes of what trump is saying we do have something planned than what is being said here by Trump”. sSays Mr. Sargent in an interview about the tensions between the two countries. Many think that these threats between the two countries are just empty threats.

      Trump and Un have yet to come into contact with each other to talk about the situation. It is all being transmitted via the news and the Internet. There are many questions as to whether the United States and North Korea will actually go to war. Andy Sargent doesn’t think that the two will go to war, “I think it will fizzle out and it will become lost in a way”.  If North Korea did send a missile to the United States and it had connected; they would have a lot to lose such as China. Since China and North Korea have never been fans of each other and if a missile were to be sent then it would only make it worse for themselves, cutting off connections with the country and maybe even having them turn on them, along with a few other countries.

      Many say that they think that Kim Jong Un doesn’t and will not send any missiles to the United States because he knows the potential the United States has to destroy them and how quick it would be to do so. During his address to the UN, Donald Trump went on to call Kim Jong Un “Rocket man” before threatening to “Totally destroy” the country of North Korea if they tried anything stupid on the United States. In response to Trump’s name calling, Kim Jong Un went on to call trump “A frightened dog” and a “Gangster fond of playing with fire”. North Korea’s UN ambassador had accused the United States of placing “An economic blockade” on North Korea and deploying nuclear assets aimed at the Korean peninsula. On Wednesday, September 27, word got out that the foreign minister of North Korea, Ri Yong-Ho said that Donald Trump “Declared war on our country” but the United States fired back saying “We have not declared war on North Korea”. A North Korean official said that the country is destined to set goals for the United Nations to end  poverty and to maintain the environment until 2030, and said that Trump pulling the United States from the 2015 Paris climate change agreement “illustrates the negative stand of the US towards the sustainable development goals”. The United States and North Korea have never “loved” each other and it doesn’t look like love is in the picture anytime in the near future. The two countries have been battling back and forth for months now and it doesn’t look light it’s lightening up. Not only did North Korea issue threats against the United States, but they also issued threats to the U.S. territory of Guam, along with its own allies, Japan and South Korea. Trump is letting  North Korea know that it is not OK to mess with the country with the biggest military in the world or they will pay the ultimate price.