In recent years, Korea’s strategic nuclear force has rapidly developed. This has made a drastic change in the landscape of the Korea-US confrontation. In July last, in particular, Korea succeeded in two rounds of test-fire of intercontinental ballistic missiles, completely changing the previous landscape of the Korea-US confrontation that had lasted for over 70 years.

From a historical point of view, the Korea-US confrontation during the period was based on a landscape in which Korea countered the US’s unilateral aggressive manoeuvres and nuclear threat and blackmail. This was because of disparity of military power between the US, a nuclear superpower, and Korea, a non-nuclear country. The US styled itself as the “strongest nuclear power in the world” possessed of lots of nuclear weapons and other strategic striking means of different kinds to attack any country in the world, while Korea had only tactical weapons for self-defence. The US underwent a disastrous defeat in the Korean war in the 1950s. But it tenaciously tried to start another aggressive war in Korea relying on the superiority of its strategic nuclear means.

Now, however, Korea has been possessed of ICBMs that have the US mainland within their shooting range after having A-bombs and H-bombs. This has put an end to the superiority of the US’s strategic nuclear means.

The Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and other US administration and military officials are screaming that Korea is posing the worst threat to them.

In the past the US viciously attempted to prevent Korea from building a strategic nuclear force in order to maintain the superiority of its strategic nuclear means in its confrontation with Korea. Slandering Korea’s “nukes” and “fire of missiles” as a “threat” to world peace, the US enlisted its vassals and even international organizations in the attempt to impose military pressure and sanctions on Korea.

All the schemes of the US, however, failed to check Korea’s development of its strategic nuclear force. Rather, they further awakened and roused the country and strengthened its justification for having nuclear weapons.

It was on February 10, 2005 that Korea officially proclaimed its possession of nuclear weapons. For over ten years since then the country succeeded in making nuclear warheads small, light and diversified and possessed A-bombs and H-bombs. Recent years witnessed Korea’s continuous successes in testfire of highly precise and diversified strategic weapons that can strike any area in the world.

In May last Korea demonstrated the actual war capacities of new types of strategic weapons including mid- and long-distance ground-to-ground strategic ballistic missile Hwasong 12 and mid- and longdistance ground-to-ground strategic ballistic missile Pukguksong 2, and finally took a place rightfully among the nations possessed of ICBMs. This meant its victory in the fierce confrontation against the US for its building of a strategic nuclear force. And it put an end to the previous landscape of Korea-US confrontation with the US exposed to a serious threat.

On July 28 last Korea conducted the test-fire of an ICBM for confirming its maximum shooting range, thus sending a solemn warning to the US. Korea’s mode of counteraction has already turned into one of preemptive strike.

Extremely confused by the might of Korea’s strategic nuclear force, the US is now bent on checking the country’s military attack.

On the 12th of the same month Washington Times wrote on its Internet homepage that the Pentagon had a plan of investing billions of US dollars in renovating the missile defense system, adding that they were intending to allocate US$ 1.5 billion of US$ 7.9 billion—planned to be invested in a groundto-air missile defense system and an Aegis ballistic missile defense system—for the renovation of 36 ground-to-air missile defense systems across the US. The US military planned to regularly conduct a missile defense exercise against north Korea’s missile “threat” for a long time, the newspaper revealed.

Experts, however, comment that as the US is incapable of checking the development of Korea’s strategic nuclear force, the future Korea-US confrontation will turn into the one whereby Korea presses harder upon the US by dint of its rapidly developing military striking ability and the latter puts all its efforts in checking the former’s military attack.

The Americans are keenly aware of Korea’s daily rising strategic status and their country’s dangerous situation. They are resolutely demanding that the hopeless hostile Korea policy be changed. In his comment a senior researcher of the Kato Institute, who is a foreign policy expert and was a special adviser to US president Reagan, said: As a matter of fact there is no justification for the US’s continuous protection of south Korea, which the US has been committed to since the end of the Korean war; what is important is that GIs’ withdrawal from south Korea will make it possible to erase the name of the US from north Korea’s list of targets; in fact the simplest way to put an end to the fear of north Korea’s missiles aimed at the US proper is disengaging from the problem of the Korean peninsula; and it is undesirable to leave the US affected by the nuclear danger of the Korean peninsula any longer.

Article: Jo Un Hyang