An article in the Atlantic presents a proposal to deal with North Korea which is thoughtful but will go nowhere. Trump and many key generals are eager to give the North a “bloody nose” strike designed to weaken the North's nuclear capability. The problem with that is the North will not sit there and take it, as anyone with any understanding of Korean mentality knows.
North Korea will respond to any US attack with everything they have. The US has threatened the North enough times that they know if they don't respond, they will be destroyed anyway. They have enough conventional artillery to decimate Seoul and kill millions in the process, and they would be faced with a use-it-or-lose-it choice.
The article points out that National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster fears the North could overwhelm the South if their nuclear program goes forward. However, the article by Peter Beinart points out:
Depicting North Korea’s nuclear program as an expression of its geopolitical might is exactly wrong. The program is actually a result of the North’s extraordinary weakness. Which is why the Trump administration’s strategy of threatening Pyongyang with war—and making it feel even more imperiled—is exactly the wrong way to curb its nuclear program. Kim Jong Un possesses nuclear weapons, above all, to deter an American attack. Thus, the best way to limit his arsenal is to help him deter such an attack without nukes. That’s the rationale behind Naval War College Professor Lyle Goldstein’s wildly counterintuitive, and oddly compelling, proposal: The United States should ask China and Russia to deploy troops on North Korean soil.
Of course, anything is better than war, but the North is far too xenophobic to allow foreign troops on their homeland. They know Seoul has been improving ties with both Beijing and Moscow for a decade, and the North could anticipate the three of them would deal Pyongyang out sooner or later. As good as it might be for the people of North Korea, the Kim regime would never let it happen.
Having Chinese and Russian troops in the North might assure the Kim regime that the US would not invade, but with more than 20,000 US troops and 100,000 US citizens at risk in and around Seoul, the US military is not eager for a catastrophic war.
Even so, McMaster and others are willing to consider a “bloody nose”strike. They never bring up the fact that perhaps two million South Koreans would die in the first hours of the conflict which would ensue. I'm sure that wouldn't cross Donald Trump's mind. I'm sure he regards non-white people as lesser humans and thus expendable. He might be a little upset that his Trump-labeled buildings might get hit, but to him the people probably mean about as much as a termite infestation.
If I sound bitter, it's because I am. I first came to Korea fifty years ago when most Americans probably considered it a shithole country. It was poor, relatively undeveloped, run by a military dictator and his clique. It had little to offer the world, and the optimistic statements from the Office of Economic Development seemed too far-fetched to be believed.
I have lived here in Korea off and on for twenty of the last fifty years, including the last eight. I have seen the Korean people work and sacrifice to get what they want most — a middle-class lifestyle for their children and their families.
After I retired from my job in the US government, I came here to teach English at the university I taught at forty years earlier – in the same department, in the same classroom. Only the students had changed. They are brighter, taller, and surprisingly sophisticated. Many had studied overseas and many were completely fluent in English. As most of them were training to become English teachers in middle and high schools, teaching them was a joy.
For some reason, maybe because I was older, students would come to me for advice. One freshman came to me quite distraught. She had always been lively, funny, and very, very smart. She said she was the girl friend of a boy now at a prestigious college in Seoul. They were boyfriend-girlfriend throughout high school, and it was fun then, she said. He now text messages her daily and calls her with plans for when they can get together for the weekend. The trouble is, she said, she doesn't want to continue the relationship. She doesn't dislike him, but she doesn't want to hurt him. He's a nice boy, she said, but she just doesn't have feelings for him like she should.
As she talked she began to sob. I reached for the box of tissues on the shelf next to my desk and set them in front of her. I took one for myself. I told her it was too bad, but she would have to follow her heart.
As she left crying, I thought about this poor guy. Here she was, the girl of his dreams. His one and only. He adored her as well he should, and he was about to be crushed. I don't know if I could have survived such a thing when I was that age. I only hope he did.
As for her, the last time I saw her a few months later, she was her joyful self.
Some of the students I taught are married now with children of their own. They are like the young mothers I see every day with their toddlers getting on the bus to pre-school. Beautiful caring moms with adorable little ones. These are the people Trump and his generals are incapable of feeling for.
Koreans are not termites. They don't deserve this.