By
David Adejumo
North Korea has over the years emerged as a Global threat. The country officially called the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), which many describe as an autocratic, totalitarian State with a reckless, uncultured and perverted juvenile (Kim Jong-un) as Supreme Leader of an indoctrinated population of over 25 million people, has since 2006 pursued a needless nuclear ambition. Jong-un, as a result of his political and diplomatic naivety, has aggravated the bitterness and resentment between North Korea and Western Global powers.
North Korea since 2006 has been a Pariah State in the International Community because of its continuous proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction, disregarding treaties which hav called for Non Proliferation of Arms and Ammunitions. Since attaining the status of a Rogue Nation, the Country has resorted to building and expanding its military capability to meet Global standards and make it battle ready to confront Western powers and prevent any possible interference in its internal affairs or invasion by the Western powers as happened to Iraq in 2003.
The Korean People’s Army (KPA) is the largest military institution in the world, with 1,106,000 active and 8,389,000 reserve and Paramilitary troops.
The Army Grand Force has approximately 1,000,000 personnel. They are equipped with 3,700 tanks, 2,100 armoured personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles, 17,900 artillery pieces, 11,000 anti-aircraft guns, 10,000 MANPADS and anti-tank guided missiles. North Korea also possesses 1,600 aircraft in the Airforce and 1,000 vessels in the Navy. North Korea has the largest Special Forces and the largest submarine fleet in the world.
The country also possesses nuclear weapons. According to a 2004 report, North Korea possesses a stockpile of chemical weapons amounting to 2,500-5,000 tons including nerve, blister, blood and vomitting Agents as well as the ability to cultivate and produce biological weapons including anthrax, smallpox and cholera.
The military faces some issues like obsolete equipment, insufficient fuel supplies and a shortage of digital command and control assets. Thus the Army deployed a wide range of asymmetric warfare technologies like anti-personnel blinding lasers, GPS jammers, midget submarines and human torpedoes, stealth paint, electro magnetic pulse bombs, and cyber warfare units.
Despite facing numerous international sanctions, the country has continuously conducted nuclear tests since 2006. They were conducted on 9 October 2006, 25 May 2009, 12 February 2013, 6 January 2016 and 9 September 2016, with Kim Jong-un promising more nuclear tests in the nearest future.
The country has the highest military expenditure in the world since the aftermath of the cold war with 15.8% of its budget on military expenditure.
The Korea People’s Army is on 24/7 standby and Red alert in case of the slightest fidget by any of its Western “Enemies”, Pyongyang won’t hesitate pressing the red button with Kim Jong-un claiming that North Korea has its nuclear war heads pointing at Washington, Tokyo and its Western Allies and are ready to launch in case of any form of provocation, interference and invasion.
The country flaunts its military powers in such a way that has intimidated the world powers and with each successive nuclear test conducted by North Korea, eyebrows are raised as to the great danger posed to Global peace and security.
There needs to be high level negotiation between North Korea and the Security Council to curtail North Korea’s needless nuclear ambition.
With the unfolding of each day, Kim Jong-un has lost every sense of humanity in him, evident in the various human rights violations through the extra judicial killings and executions of civilians and government officials.
The issue of “North Korea” needs swift global attention.
Dear Mr. Adejumo, Here's some follow up information regarding the antiquity of North Korea's air force and domestic air fleet. The article is a report from this week's North Korean air show. https://www.yahoo.com/news/north-korea-air-show-thumbs-nose-sanctions-061445315--finance.html
Dear Mr. Adejumo, I encourage you to look more closely at both the facts and tone of your view on North Korea. While I agree it poses a real threat, particularly to South Korea, I assert that your assessment of their capabilities and the heat with which you express your argument that North Korea poses a global threat is over blown. I do not assert that North Korea is harmless or should be ignored. But I caution that yours is one of many voices which has put North Korea in front of us as a boogey man for propaganda purposes. Here in the United States, statements like those you make were used to excite the fears of our population after 9/11/2001. This induced us to docilely accept passage of the Patriot Act which abridged many of our freedoms and which is still in force 15 years later. And of course North Korea's assigned place in President Bush's "Axis of Evil" helped lead us into our fool's errand in Iraq. Your article and its implications are far more true of the US than any other nation in the world. You state extraordinary numbers for military means by which North Korea might project force throughout the region, i.e. 1000 vessels, 1600 aircraft. What is the quality and capability of these resources and of the tanks and armed fighters that you claim are present in such large numbers? Can you validate that the sources of your information are not propaganda provided by North Korea herself or by one of her local antagonists? Here is a good article from the US's Central Intelligence Agency summarizing North Korea's history, etc. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/print/country/countrypdf_kn.pdf Note that the whole of Korea was overrun and occupied by the Japanese from 1905 till they were expelled in 1945 by the Soviet Union in the North and by the US in the South. North Korea is now a buffer state between her far more powerful neighbors, China, i.e. Manchuria, and South Korea. It is in her geopolitical interests to appear dangerous and so to be belligerent. Her pursuit of nuclear capabilities in this context is not "needless" as you state. With regards North Korea's nuclear capabilities, here's a recent article summarizing the information we have. http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/08/asia/north-korea-seismic-activity/ It includes aerial photos of the presumed underground test site. The only information we, the public, appear to have is that weak but significant seismic activity was reported centered near this site and that North Korean has issued a statement claiming that it was a nuclear test. This is consistent with the quality of information we have about previous seismic activity from this area over the past 10 years, i.e. 5 "nuclear tests." I fail to see how this very limited information justifies the assertions by several of my friends that North Korea's leader is the most dangerous despot in the world. Do you have any additional information to provide? I certainly don't claim that there is no nuclear capability in North Korea. But those quakes could easily be caused by injecting water into small seismic fault lines with fracking waste water disposal equipment, by very crude and massive nuclear devices, or even by equivalent conventional explosives. I urge you to consider the quality of information to which you have access. Compare it with information which was presented to the UN by Colin Powell to justify the Iraq war. Consider the benefits to the North Korean regime of threatening their neighbors. Consider the impact of your own fears. To me it all looks like propaganda with a grain of truth at the center, viz. that North Korea likely has fissile material and they certainly have rockets which will fly at least a few hundred miles. Finally your personal statements about the leader of North Korea are unsupported. Do you any reliable information other than the propaganda fed to all of us by the media? One fact is that North Korea has not made war on China or South Korea for more than 60 years. We in the US on the other hand have repeatedly projected our war making power far outside ourselves and our neighbors. Does it make sense to condemn North Korea because they are autocratic and project belligerence when so many accept that the US is a democracy and yet has consistently been a very bad actor among nation states for many decades?