Billionaire George Soros warns that the "survival of our entire is at stake" in a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Escalating tensions between the USA and North Korea could boil over, and nuclear war is a distinct possibility, Soros warned.

The world's major geopolitical actors must now "come to terms with North Korea as a nuclear power" to prevent a nuclear war breaking out.



LONDON – Billionaire investor George Soros has warned that the "survival of our entire civilization is at stake" in a stark warning to the global elites gathered at Davos this week.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum on Thursday night, Soros warned that escalating tensions between the USA and North Korea now pose an existential threat to the current world order, and argued that the world must now accept North Korea as a nuclear power to prevent armageddon for the rest of the world.

"The threat of nuclear war is so horrendous that we are inclined to ignore it. But it is real," Soros said.

"The situation has deteriorated. Not only the survival of open society, but the survival of our entire civilization is at stake."

"Both [Kim Jong-Un and Donald Trump] seem willing to risk a nuclear war in order to keep themselves in power.

"The United States is set on a course toward nuclear war by refusing to accept that North Korea has become a nuclear power," he continued.

"This creates a strong incentive for North Korea to develop its nuclear capacity with all possible speed, which in turn may induce the United States to use its nuclear superiority pre-emptively; in effect to start a nuclear war in order to prevent nuclear war."

To prevent such an escalation, Soros said, the world's major geopolitical actors must now accept that the rogue state has a nuclear programme.

"The only sensible strategy is to accept reality, however unpleasant it is, and to come to terms with North Korea as a nuclear power," he said.

One means of averting a nuclear conflict, Soros argued, is for greater cooperation between the two powers competing for global hegemony, China and the USA.

"This requires the United States to cooperate with all the interested parties, China foremost among them. Beijing holds most of the levers of power against North Korea, but is reluctant to use them."

The danger of Trump, Facebook, and Google

Elsewhere in his speech, Soros singled out Donald Trump as a "danger" to the world, but described him as a "temporary phenomenon that will disappear in 2020."

"I give President Trump credit for motivating his core supporters brilliantly, but for every core supporter, he has created a greater number of core opponents who are equally strongly motivated. That is why I expect a Democratic landslide in 2018."

Soros also rounded on tech giants like Facebook and Google arguing the companies' size and "monopolistic" behavior had made them a "menace" to society, damaged democracy, and encouraged "addiction" akin to gambling companies.

"Social-media companies influence how people think and behave without them even being aware of it," he said, adding that they have "far-reaching adverse consequences on the functioning of democracy, particularly on the integrity of elections."