War Rhetoric between US, North Korea Boosts Public Concern about War in Trump Era
WASHINGTON, DC (Tasnim) – Exchange of war rhetoric between the US and North Korea has worried people about the start of new war during the US President Donald Trump's presidency.
Prominent political and diplomatic figures across the world have called on the US president, Donald Trump, and the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, to wind down the war of rhetoric.
The world leaders have been engaged in a war of words, with Trump threatening to rain “fire and fury” on the communist state after Pyongyang said it was “carefully examining” a plan to hit Guam with missiles.
In the latest development, North Korea fired several short-range missiles into the sea off its east coast early on Saturday, South Korea and the US military said, as the two allies conducted annual joint military drills that the North denounces as preparation for war.
The South Korean and US militaries are in the midst of the annual Ulchi Freedom Guardian drills, that involve computer simulations of a war to test readiness and run until Aug. 31.
Tasnim has interviewed some US citizens regarding developments in the Korean Peninsula that follows.
“The North Korea have demonstrated the capability of developing an intercontinental ballistic missile when they get the technical means that they can hit the United States, may be not today, and may be not tomorrow but at some point. At parallel to that, according to US intelligence they seem to have developed the capability of miniaturizing the nuclear warhead, so they would fit on the tip of the missile,” a US citizen told Tasnim.
Another US citizen said that this is a dangerous situation for the American and the Korean peoples and especially the 160,000 people living in Guam which have been threatened by Pyongyang in retaliation for Trump comments.
The US society has shown a reluctant response. Some people fear a nuclear war, a war that could result in destruction and annihilation in the country while some others were in doubt, in general, about putting these threats into operation. They consider such stances as normal disputes between the US and North Korea and a show of force and the exchange of war rhetoric in which they prefer the language of force rather than the language of negotiations.
“I have to say your (US) president is not the most diplomatic man in the world and nor is the leader of North Korea, and together they may be the biggest threat to world peace since 1939," an interviewee told Tasnim correspondent in Washington.
These developments and the escalation of situation together with hasty and tense decisions and ignoring political options on the negotiation table, can lead to an increase in the level of threats, and can cause greater crisis in the world political and economic status.
Despite the fierce comments exchanged between Washington and Pyongyang, the situation has not gone beyond verbal threats between two states’ officials, therefore some analysts believe that the current crisis cannot lead to war at least in this period.
