Is North Korea a Legitimate Threat?
Last night, I happened to watch a feature done by a New York Times columnist about his investigation in North Korea. In the video, he interviewed various citizens of North Korea and the overarching theme was that they all believed that war was imminent and that America was simply evil. It was fascinating to see such an all-encompassing propaganda machine at work. When children were looking at the computer, they only had access to the intranet, not the internet. This means every single thing they saw had been vetted by the government and they were isolated from the whole world.
While the North Koreans are convinced we will soon be at war, U.S. sources are split. I happened to find an article published on October 30th discussing the U.S. acquiring cluster munitions. I wrote about the ethicality of cluster munitions and stockpiling for a paper in my Ethics class, but I was reminded of it this morning when there was mention of North Korea in the "morning briefing" by the New York Times. Within this mini-article, there was a delcaration by President Trump that North Korea was no longer a threat, but experts have identified 16 hidden missile bases throughout North Korea. Now, why would a government begin stockpiling massively destructive weapons only two weeks ago and then go back on that sentiment today? The only explanation I can think of is our own kind of propaganda, maybe at a lesser degree. Trump and his administration have their own agendas and types of propaganda that sometimes even differ among themselves. So, from all this information, I have no way to know whether or not North Korea is a legitimate threat.
Sources referred to:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/12/briefing/north-korea-china-afghanistan.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/30/magazine/cluster-munitions-army.html
https://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/columnists/100000005473011/from-north-korea-with-dread-kristof-nicholas.html
While the North Koreans are convinced we will soon be at war, U.S. sources are split. I happened to find an article published on October 30th discussing the U.S. acquiring cluster munitions. I wrote about the ethicality of cluster munitions and stockpiling for a paper in my Ethics class, but I was reminded of it this morning when there was mention of North Korea in the "morning briefing" by the New York Times. Within this mini-article, there was a delcaration by President Trump that North Korea was no longer a threat, but experts have identified 16 hidden missile bases throughout North Korea. Now, why would a government begin stockpiling massively destructive weapons only two weeks ago and then go back on that sentiment today? The only explanation I can think of is our own kind of propaganda, maybe at a lesser degree. Trump and his administration have their own agendas and types of propaganda that sometimes even differ among themselves. So, from all this information, I have no way to know whether or not North Korea is a legitimate threat.
 |
| US President Donald Trump and North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un |
Sources referred to:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/12/briefing/north-korea-china-afghanistan.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/30/magazine/cluster-munitions-army.html
https://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/columnists/100000005473011/from-north-korea-with-dread-kristof-nicholas.html
Comments
Post a Comment