USA Warns of Possible North Korean Attack in the Next Few Months

Officials from the White House National Security Council and former Deputy Secretary of State expressed concerns about the possibility of North Korea’s deadly military provocation in the coming months.

According to the New York Times (NYT) on the 25th (local time), John Finer, Deputy National Security Adviser of the White House National Security Council (NSC), pointed out at a forum of the U.S. think tank ‘Asia Society’, “North Korea continues to take very negative actions.”

Daniel Russell, former Deputy Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs and vice president of the Asia Society, who appeared at the event, said, “It seems that North Korean Chairman Kim Jong Un intends to make an attack beyond the Yeonpyeong Island shelling in 2010,” and “We must be prepared for the possibility of Kim Jong Un’s shocking physical actions.”

Chairman Kim ordered in his policy speech at the Supreme People’s Assembly on the 15th that expressions such as ‘self-reliance, peaceful unification, and national solidarity’ should be deleted from North Korea’s constitution and that South Korea should be educated as “the primary enemy with ironclad resolve” and “an immutable arch-enemy.”

Chairman Kim defined at the Workers’ Party’s plenary meeting on December 30th last year, “The inter-Korean (South-North) relationship has completely solidified as not a kinship, homogeneous relationship, but a hostile relationship between two countries, two warring countries at war.”

North Korea has continued to provoke missile test launches since last year, including the most recent announcement of the first test launch of a new type of strategic cruise missile on the 24th.

The New York Times (NYT) quoted multiple officials on the same day, “North Korea is likely to take deadly military action against South Korea in the coming months after changing its policy to a hostile line (against the South).”

According to the NYT, these officials warned that while there is no imminent risk of a full-scale war on the Korean Peninsula, due to Kim’s recent remarks becoming more aggressive, North Korea could carry out an attack similar to the Yeonpyeong Island shelling in 2010 while avoiding a sudden escalation of tension.

John Kirby, the White House NSC Strategic Communication Coordinator, was asked in a recent briefing whether Kim’s nuclear and war threats against South Korea and the United States will lead to actual actions, to which he answered that the rhetoric should be taken seriously.

Coordinator Kirby said, “We must take the rhetoric of a person responsible for a regime that is pursuing a continuous increase in military power, including nuclear capabilities, seriously,” and expressed concern, “That’s why we are working to respond to such threats.”

By. Joon Hyung Kim