North Korean leader’s supposed threat towards U.S. seemingly weak.

U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong-un have created much tension between each other when discussing various political and economic factors involving both of their respective nations. 

Since Kim Jong-un became the supreme leader in North Korea in 2011, he has authorized over 80 missile related tests,16 tests in the year of 2017 alone. The realistic possibility of North Korea possessing military technology such as this, and the possibility of it being used, has alerted many nations, one particularly being the U.S. 

In order to possibly prevent any missile tests from North Korea, President Trump issued an executive order that cut off any sort of economic assistance to North Korea,calling any company working with North Korea to freeze their assets in September of 2017. This was done in order to pressure North Korea to denuclearize, only to receive much resent from North Korea and its leader.  

In order to settle differences peacefully, the U.S. and North Korea have diplomatically discussed ways in which to remove sanctions and move forward with international diplomacy between the two nations, yet discussions between the two nations’ leaders do not seem to be going as planned. In a statement during negotiations, a North Korean representative said that the United States should expect to receive a “Christmas gift” if a diplomatic change hadn’t occurred by the end of the year. 

Due to North Korea’s history involving nuclear tests and such, it was inferred that this “Christmas present” was some sort of ballistic missile, or another similar threat. 20th Century World Topics teacher Brent Chambers thinks that a missile-related threat coming from North Korea is viable. 

“I’m thinking it’s probably a test that he hopes will reveal that he could strike the mainland of the U.S., which he cannot do to our knowledge right now,” Chambers said. “Absolutely it’s going to be some sort of missile test.” 

While it may seem set in stone that the North Korean supreme leader plans to attack or provoke the United States, the bizarreness of his past history also leaves much to the imagination. 

Government teacher Jeffrey Richards is unsure of what Kim-Jong Un’s true intentions are. 

“I have no idea, because that guy [Kim-Jong Un] has always said some things and he’s always very cryptic in what he does,” Richards said. 

Richards also believes that Kim-Jong Un will follow through with his words, as the leader of North Korea always seems to feel the need to prove themselves on the global stage.

“I mean, one year he wanted to show he had the missile capability so he shot them off and immediately destroyed them within seconds of takeoff just to let everyone know, ‘I have this’,” Richards said. “Other times it’s just to get everybody to a deadline and then he’ll do a speech. So, he always does something. The question is, what’s the severity? He’s always walked up to the line, and then puts his toes maybe on the other side but never crosses it.” 

With a new year passing and no “present” from the North Korean supreme leader, much suspicion hangs in the air regarding the previously aforementioned gift, and more information will be revealed in the weeks/days to come. 

Chambers doesn’t think all that much will come of this threat, and has full faith in the U.S.’ professionalism to deal with North Korea. 

“No, it doesn’t worry me too much,” Chambers said. “These things have a way of playing themselves out and we have an enormous amount of very professional people at the Pentagon that make their living keeping an eye on North Korea and analyzing satellite imagery. I have no doubt that the professionalism of both the United States military and our allies in the region will be such that if something horrible has to happen it will be quick.” 

As of Jan. 17, 2020, the leader of North Korea has not followed through on the threat of a “Christmas present”, and much speculation still exists as to whether or not he will follow up.

North Korean missile test log:

https://www.nti.org/analysis/articles/cns-north-korea-missile-test-database/