Authored by Ted Galen Carpenter via The National Interest,
The United States and its allies continue to cajole and threaten North Korea to negotiate an agreement that would relinquish its growing nuclear and ballistic-missile programs.
Echoing a report from earlier this week, when on Wednesday the Seoul-based Asia Business Daily reported that North Korea is preparing to fire multiple short-range rockets around the opening of the Chinese Communist Party’s twice-a-decade congress on Oct. 18 - arguably the year's most important geopolitical event - on Saturday the South Korean press claimed that "North Korea is believed to be preparing to launch a ballistic missile ahead of an upcoming joint naval drill by the US and South Korea", according to a government source.
In what may be the most bizarre development of the day, the WaPo reports that in their ongoing feud with President Trump, the North Korean government has quietly sought the help of an unlikely counterparty: Republicans.
For the first time since 2008, a team of Wall Street Journal journalists has been allowed to visit and document the North Korean capital city of Pyongyang just as tensions between the US and its longtime geopolitical foe are reaching a boiling point.
The team of reporters was taken on a guided tour of the showcase capital, reporting that the country’s nuclear ambitions appear to be etched into the city’s landscape. Giant sculptures of atoms sit on top of new apartment towers built for the country’s nuclear scientists.
In the ongoing game of escalating verbal ping-pong, North Korea responded on Monday to the latest condemnation by the UN Security Council which responded to Pyongyang Friday missile launch with a harsly worded verbal rebuke, and warned that the more sanctions pursued by the US and its allies, "will only increase our pace towards the ultimate completion of the state nuclear force,” KCNA reported, citing ministry of foreign affairs.