The North Korea monitor site 38North published a report on Wednesday citing officials within the communist government suggesting that Pyongyang is “extremely serious” about the possibility of war with the United States, considering an American attack an existential threat to the country.
Writing after a recent trip to North Korea, author Alexander Voronstov of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russia Academy of Sciences says that diplomatic officials in the country told him “our soldiers have long been sleeping without removing their boots” because of fears that an American attack under President Donald Trump is imminent. North Korea’s regime is reluctant to accept any invitations to talks, he suggests, because it expects the war between the two countries—which technically never ended after the signing of an armistice in 1953—to break out at any moment.
“The North Koreans see growing signs, reflecting President Donald Trump’s ‘America First’ principle, that the United States is prepared to accept the terrible loss of lives that would result from a large-scale military conflict with North Korea,” Voronstov writes. He notes that South Koreans appear significantly more trusting that Trump is aware of the potential repercussions of such a war and willing to prevent it.
Voronstov also adds a quote from a North Korean diplomat, who says, “We understand that it would be the last day of our country” if dictator Kim Jong-un ordered a nuclear attack on the United States.
North Korean propaganda threatens to target American cities with nuclear weapons on a semi-regular basis, publishing videos simulating nuclear attacks on San Francisco, Washington, DC, and New York. President Donald Trump has vowed to respond to any nuclear attack with “fire and fury like the world has never seen.”
American officials have repeatedly warned that rekindling the war between the U.S. and North Korea could result in unprecedented devastation. A report by the Congressional Research Service found that a military conflict there would “likely be significantly more complex and dangerous than any of the interventions the United States has undertaken since the end of the Cold War, including those in Iraq, Libya, and the Balkans.” A military attack on North Korea, it continued, would come with a “high degree of military and political risk.”
If accurately representative of North Korean political thought, Voronstov’s observations indicate that these propaganda displays are bluffs the American government should not concern itself with. The Trump administration has responded to escalating rhetoric with warnings of its own.
Kim has begun 2018 with what many observers are describing as a change in tone, threatening only the United States with nuclear annihilation and not South Korea. This week, North Korean officials met with South Korean counterparts to ensure that they will attend this year’s Winter Olympics in the country, refusing to discuss political issues outside of the athletic event. The talks resulted in North Korea agreeing to send between 400-500 athletes, officials, cheerleaders, and “fans” to the Winter Games.
On Thursday, Rodong Sinmun, a government propaganda outlet that regularly published bellicose insults against American and South Korean officials, instead assured South Korean observers that Pyongyang will “defend the peace on the Korean Peninsula and security of the nation.”
“The north and the south can certainly avert a war and defuse the tensions on the Korean Peninsula if they make up their mind to,” a column in the newspaper read. “Neither aggression challenge nor obstructive moves of the anti-reunification forces can ever check the advance of the Korean nation to write a new history of the national reunification by its concerted efforts.”
The article did warn, however, that the United States is “rendering the situation constantly tense on the Korean Peninsula in order to invade the DPRK and to realize the ambition for world domination.”
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