Relations between North Korea and the United States are getting worse by the day and President Donald Trump’s latest action may have just escalated the animosity between the two nations to a whole new level.
North Korea Named State Sponsor of Terrorism
On Monday, Trump made an announcement during the Cabinet meeting that sent shock waves through the nation. He said that starting from today, the United States is putting North Korea on the list as a state sponsor of terrorism. The decision came as a result of his administration’s ‘extreme pressure campaign’ which is aimed at punishing North Korea for its provocative missile tests that have been putting the safety of countries around it in jeopardy.
Both South Korea and Japan welcomed Trump’s decision to put North Korea on the list of state sponsors of terrorism
In the past, Trump’s words on the North Korea situation have provided no diplomatic solutions, instead, they have provoked the North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong Un to intensify his missile testing campaign as a response to the U.S. president’s agitating words. Trump’s call for an extreme pressure campaign came in the midst of international concerns that if North Korea didn’t change its ways, another great war would be inevitable.
Despite the warnings from its western rivals, North Korea has not refrained from firing dangerous missiles over its borders as a recent warning from Japan states that North Korea might fire a third missile in the coming few days as a part of its army’s training regimen.
North Korea Faces More Sanctions
The U.S. and other western countries have intensified their punitive measures against North Korea by passing new sanctions against the country in order to isolate it even further from the rest of the world. After Trump’s announcement at the Cabinet meeting, North Korea joined the list of state sponsors of terrorism alongside Syria, Iran and Sudan, the only three other countries on the list.
North Korea can no longer receive any sort of financial or diplomatic support from the U.S
The implications on North Korea for its new label are very serious; the country can no longer receive any sort of financial or diplomatic support from the U.S. and it cannot engage in any import or export of defense. Trump’s statement has generated mixed response from politicians around the world about whether North Korea deserves to be called a supporter of terrorism for simply carrying out missile tests.
Is Trump’s Decision Justified?
State administration lawyers have been calling Trump’s decision unjust. According to the law, a country must have committed more than one act of terrorism to be declared a state sponsor of terrorism – North Korea hadn’t committed any. The U.S. president and his cabin argued that Kim Jong Un had already committed more than one act of terrorism when he ordered the assassination of his half-brother in Malaysia and when the 23-year-old American citizen, Otto Warmbier, was returned from North Korea in a coma which eventually resulted in his death.
The country had been on the list of state sponsor of terrorism before during the presidency of George W. Bush along with Iraq and Iran. It was later removed from the list to promote diplomatic talks and persuade it to stop its nuclear program. The tactic didn’t work and it seems like North Korea has gone back to its old ways despite western efforts to negotiate.
2017: North Korea showing off its weapons’ advanced technology
Trump’s Pressure Campaign May Have no Effect on Kim Jong Un
As history repeats itself, it has become clear that North Korea will not be giving up its nuclear program any time soon and no amount of sanctions can change the reality. Its new designation as the state sponsor of terrorism doesn’t seem to have an effect on the country’s supreme leader either.
Kim Jong Un wants nuclear capability by creating an intercontinental ballistic missile to maintain his power and prevent any changes in the regime and nothing seems to be stopping him from doing so. Despite sanctions from its western rivals, North Korea’s missile program becomes stronger and more advanced than ever which goes to show what little effect Trump’s pressure campaign has had on Kim Jong Un’s actions.
