The Washington Examiner:
North Korea is impatient that U.S. and international sanctions remain in force against it. We should expect at least one new North Korean missile test in the months ahead.
In an aggressive statement on Thursday, North Korea warned that “The United States must now recognize … the accurate meaning of the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula … means the removal of all sources of nuclear threat, not only from the South and North but also from areas neighboring the Korean Peninsula.”
The North Koreans are complaining here about U.S. nuclear strike forces out of Guam, and the fleet nuclear ballistic missile submarine force in west Pacific waters. Yet the key point here is that North Korea knows the U.S. will never remove its submarine forces from the Pacific. They know that their nuclear threat to America and that posed by China, and Russia requires America’s presentation of an effective deterrent counterforce. So why, if North Korea knows its demands are absurd, is it making them?
