Why does North Korea want nuclear weapons?

This article provides useful information:  https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/8/16/1879574/-Why-North-Korea-Wants-Nuclear-Weapons?detail=emaildkcc

 

Also, I wrote this to explain clearly why North Korea wants their nuclear weapons:

When North Korea conducts a missile test, or when North Korea’s nuclear weapons get into the news, it is typical for the American people — and our media and our politicians — to assume that North Korea is up to no good, that North Korea is an aggressive threat, etc.

Actually, we would do much better thinking — and much better public policy-making — if we were to understand WHY North Korea wants nuclear weapons.

The American people — and our media and our politicians — automatically assume that the U.S. needs nuclear weapons for our “national security” and for “deterrence.”  Can’t we see that North Korea feels the same way?

North Korea is a small, extremely poor nation surrounded by bigger nations that either have made war upon it and/or currently have nuclear weapons.  Japan, China and the U.S. have conducted wars on Korean land.  China, the U.S. and Russia have nuclear weapons.  The U.S. has explicitly threatened to attack Korea with nuclear weapons.

For many decades the U.S. and the much richer and much more militarily powerful neighbor South Korea repeatedly conduct “war games” intended to threaten and intimidate North Korea and launch a devastating conventional war against that nation.

If the U.S. justifies our nuclear weapons on the grounds of “national security” and “deterrence,” why can’t we see that North Korea feels that same need too?

 

More context:

Before George W. Bush started his 2003 illegal war against Iraq, he and his propagandists falsely claimed that North Korea and Iran and Iraq constituted an “axis of evil” that we must defeat.  That was utterly and blatantly false!  Iran (Shia majority) and Iraq (Sunni majority) were enemies who had fought a bitter war against each other for several years in the 1980s, so they had no “axis” between them, and North Korea was totally unrelated to them politically.  But Bush’s “axis” propaganda was designed to provoke fear among the American people by triggering memories of the World War II “axis” nations.  The “axis” propaganda was just a lying gimmick.

But North Korea could see the bulls-eye painted on them.  The U.S. military overthrew Iraq’s government and has been relentlessly trying to hurt and possibly overthrow Iran’s government.  Neither of those nations had nuclear weapons.  NOR WERE THEY TRYING TO BUILD THEM.  But the U.S. war-hawks’ propaganda used that lie in order to “sell” those wars to the American public.

In contrast, North Korea does have a few nuclear weapons and a few short-range missiles.  Clearly, North Korea sees that its need for “national security” and “deterrence” makes it necessary for them to keep those weapons.

Trump thinks he is such a sweet-talker that he can sweet-talk North Korea’s dictator out of them.  Trump is wrong.

Instead, we must TAKE STRONG STEPS to REDUCE nuclear weapons, REDUCE the likelihood of mistakes or miscalculations that could lead to launching them, and ABOLISH ALL nuclear weapons WORLDWIDE.

See information about the 2017 treaty that the United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly passed.  The nations that have nuclear weapons opposed that treaty, but overall, the rest of the world wants it.  See the “Nuclear Weapons” part of this blog for a few posts providing information.

 

 

 

About GlenAnderson 1499 Articles
Since the late 1960s Glen Anderson has devoted his life to working as a volunteer for peace, nonviolence, social justice, and progressive political issues. He has worked through many existing organizations and started several. Over the years he has worked especially for such wide-ranging goals as making peace with Vietnam, eliminating nuclear weapons, converting from a military economy to a peacetime economy, abolishing the death penalty, promoting nonviolence at all levels throughout society, and helping people organize and strategize for grassroots movements to solve many kinds of problems. He writes, speaks, and conducts training workshops on a wide variety of topics. Since 1987 he has produced and hosted a one-hour cable TV interview program on many kinds of issues. Since 2017 he has blogged at https://parallaxperspectives.org He lives in Lacey near Olympia WA. You can reach him at (360) 491-9093 glen@parallaxperspectives.org