Tag Archives: nkorea

The “No First Use” Nuclear Weapons Policy

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The title says it clearly enough. A “no first use” pledge might work much better than threats if we want to advert a nuclear war with, for example, North Korea. Given the size of the country’s army, even a conventional weapons conflict would have devastating consequences on the Korean peninsula. But a “no first use” pledge would probably prevent that as well, since it could include something like “no state will use nuclear weapons as long as its territorial integrity is preserved”. Here’s an article that describes all this in more detail:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/10/16/if-trump-wants-to-prevent-nuclear-war-with-north-korea-a-no-first-use-pledge-might-work-better-than-threats^

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Kazakhstan vs North Korea

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Some time ago, I came about this interesting article, which compares the two countries. It’s an interesting point of view that shows how Kazakhstan managed to prosper after giving up its nuclear arsenal whereas North Korea is in economic ruin:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/sep/22/north-korea-and-kazakhstan-a-study-in-nuclear-cont/^

But for all their differences, unfortunately, there are many parallels that can be drawn between the two countries. I’d congratulate Kazakhstan if I didn’t know that the country is ruled by an authoritarian government that has a rather poor human rights record. It’s a far cry from North Korea but still…

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North Korea’s Most Dangerous Weapon: Incompetence

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As you might know, on the 7th of February 2016, North Korea launched an “Earth observation satellite”. Governments across the world were probably right in condemning the operation. The same type of rocket can also be used for nuclear warfare.

What about the satellite? Well, apparently it’s tumbling in orbit, useless:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/military/news/a19365/north-korean-satellite-is-tumbling-in-orbit/^

Fun fact: there are about 2000 satellites orbiting our planet and an estimated 300.000 pieces of space junk. On average, we’re losing one satellite per year. A collision between two satellites could have dire consequences.

One of those consequences has a name. It’s called the Kessler syndrome: a cascade of collisions that would exponentially increase the amount of orbital junk. It would ultimately mean the swift destruction of most of our fleet of satellites:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome^

North Korea can be all sorts of dangerous, especially since it couldn’t care less about any advice coming from the international community. Dictator Kim Jong-un is therefore free to play “launch the satellite” and “detonate nuclear bombs underground”.

Unfortunately for all of us, disasters don’t care much about the grandiose desires of totalitarian leaders. North Korea’s most recent failure casts an ominous shadow over all of its scientific and military programs. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like being in the same boat with a drunken madman armed with explosives. For the sake of all of us, I hope the intoxication wears off, and soon.

Note: the drunken man analogy is not directed at North Korea or at Kim Jong-un. Rather, it’s an analogy of the entire socio-political situation over there. I believe that we, as a society, should work together to help educate the future political class and those that vote people in power. Kim Jong-un is a son of Earth just like all of us. The reasons of his behavior can be found in his upbringing and surrounding social climate. The same can be said of all of us. If we change the social environment, we change our civilization.

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