



Democracy Now spoke with journalist Tim Shorrock, who recently returned from South Korea. Shorrock revealed that as recently as two years ago, North Korea actually made an effort to find common ground with the United States, offering to put a moratorium on its program if the Unites States would proceed in peace talks towards the official termination of the Korean War.





Here is what he said:





Why are we going to war, why are we threatening war, when we haven’t even attempted talks with North Korea?





I think, you talk to anybody who is an expert, who’s been around the region, who’s actually negotiated with North Koreans, there is plenty of room, plenty of flexibility, to talk to North Korea. And there are certainly, proposals, that North Korea itself has made, as recently as 2015, two years ago, when they said they would put a moratorium on their program if the United States would start opening talks about a peace treaty to end the Korean War, which is still an armistice.





The Korean War has never formally ended. That’s why people, reporters, are pushing back against the State Department, because, after all, here you have the top two national security leaders of the Trump administration have been stressing diplomacy, and suddenly they’re talking nuclear war.









So, why Donald Trump has chosen to escalate now the conflict with North Korea?





According to a relatively new theory , the US wants from North Korea the same thing it wants from Afghanistan : minerals worth trillions.





Yet, one of the most probable explanation could be connected with Trump's game to distract attention from the internal big problems and the fact that he faithfully serves the establishment on a series of key issues.





Consequently, Trump is trying to satisfy the appetite of the warmongering neocon/neoliberal establishment, which, however, hides its real target behind the dangerous game of provocative statements against North Korea. And the target is no other than China.





With a pro-US puppet regime in North Korea, the warmongering establishment will mark a great strategic victory, as it will put China definitely on the ropes through the US troops presence not only in Asia-Pacific bases around China, but also, right next to its east land borders.





The problem is that there are limited options concerning North Korea. Proxy wars and internal provocative operations appear almost impossible to be held. But also, an all-out war with a country that possesses nuclear weapons may be proved catastrophic, not only for the US.





If North Korea launches an attack that threatens the United States then China should stay neutral, but if the United States attacks first and tries to overthrow North Korea's government China will stop them ...” Besides, China will not sit back and take its full encirclement so easily. According to Reuters , a Chinese state-run newspaper stated that “



