By Griffen Smith | NORTH KOREA

In the last month, North Korea has launched multiple missile tests. Some of them went over Japan airspace, though all of them eventually went into the ocean. However, all come with condemnation from the United States and their allies. United States President Donald Trump says there will be “fire and fury” as retaliation in the case of any missile attacks from the small communist nation. US media has further escalated the issue, vividly describing the death and destruction that would ensue from these wars if they ever took place.

Unfortunately for them, there will never be a nuclear war to report on.

The possession of nuclear weapons, as explained by philosopher William Gay, actually discourages countries from war. In his paper titled “Apocalyptic thinking versus nonviolent action,” taking into account the use of a nuclear arsenal in potential conflicts actually decreases violence. In fact, he explains that in the numerous conflicts between countries in the 20th century, almost all countries used nonviolent modes of aggression. The reason countries are not convening in blatant warfare is because these countries possess the ability to destroy one another in less than an hour. Examples of the concept of mutually assured destruction (or MAD) can be seen in the Cold war, and now Korean tensions. This can also be seen today with the US putting sanctions on nuclear countries such as Russia, Iran, and North Korea.

What the media will not tell you is that nuclear weapons in the present are simply used for leverage, not for war. There has not been a single nuclear or even conventional war between two countries that have weapons of mass destruction. Yes, nuclear war has happened once. World War II holds the title as the only time conventional nuclear weapons were actually utilized. However, if Japan had developed the capability to launch nuclear weapons, the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki most likely would not have taken place for fear of retaliation. The doctrine of mutually assured destruction is what drives this philosophy of nonviolence. MAD explains how if both nations in any instance have nuclear weapons, then both will not fire because nuclear war is simply unwinnable. Simply put, “whoever shoots first, dies second.”

Lastly, journalists arguing that North Korea is different from past nuclear aggressors don’t take into account how the North Korean regime has threatened the world for decades. It all started in 1994 when a North Korean negotiator threatened to turn Seoul into “a sea of fire.” Since then a campaign if aggressive rhetoric has been coming from Pyongyang as well as America. For example, George Bush calling North Korea the “Axis of evil” in 2002. The Korean crisis is, at least at this moment, all bark, no bite. Furthermore, if Kim Jong Un wants a preserved North Korea, the last thing he would do would be to attack the most powerful military in the world, even with non-nuclear weapons.

So when looking at this threat of a supposed World War III with North Korea, one must look at what the media refuses to mention. Nuclear war is not feasible without complete destruction of the countries that participate in it, along with the rest of the world. Moreover, Nuclear weapons actually prevent violence through MAD. This is why there will not be a nuclear war in the near future, or as long as nuclear missiles are the pinnacle of military technology around the world.