US using DPRK threat to maintain military foothold in East Asia as a counter to China: Scholar

The United States is using the North Korean issue in order to maintain a military foothold on the East Asian mainland as a counter to China, says Professor Dennis Etler, an American political analyst who has a decades-long interest in international affairs.

Etler, a professor of Anthropology at Cabrillo College in Aptos, California, made the remarks in an interview with Press TV Friday when asked why the US is clashing with North Korea and what it really wants to achieve.

“The Democratic People's Republic of Korea has been around for 70 years. The US has no ability nor intention of conducting regime change to replace the government as done elsewhere because China would never allow it. Neither does the US demonization of North Korea have anything to do with concern over human right,” Professor Etler said.

“The US itself has an abysmal record of human rights violations and has supported many governments which are abysmal human rights abusers. The US also has no fear that North Korea will try and invade the South as that would not be allowed by China which would immediately cut off all oil and gas supplies to the North incapacitating its military,” he stated.

“So, what exactly is the bone of contention between North Korea and the United States? Why are the US and North Korea enemies when even the Cold War has long ended?” he asked.  

“The only reason is that the US wants to maintain a military foothold on the East Asian mainland as a counter to China.  The US has a massive military presence in Japan, Okinawa and Guam, supplies Taiwan with US arms and has other military assets in East Asia. The only reason for this presence is to hold China in check,” the scholar said.

PressTV-‘US using North Korea for military build-up’

The US is using a policy of brinkmanship against North Korea to deploy more troops and nuclear weapons to South Korea, Japan, and Guam, a political analyst says.

“The escalation of tensions with the DPRK is meant to reinforce the rationale for the US occupation of South Korea and apply pressure on China in the hope that the US will gain some sort of advantage by doing so,” he noted.

“All that North Korea asks for is to finally end the state of war between it and the US, be recognized as a sovereign nation and accepted as an equal. This would entail the withdrawal of US forces from the Korean peninsula, something the US refuses to do. As in China, Vietnam and elsewhere it is only such a course of action that will allow the DPRK to become integrated into the global community of nations and continue its own independent course of development,” Professor Etler concluded.

President Donald Trump said the US would rain "fire and fury" on North Korea, which some interpreted as threatening the country with a preemptive nuclear attack. He has also said that a military option against North Korea is "locked and loaded."

PressTV-‘US building up capability to nuke China’

The US is using the pretext of North Korea to build up its military capabilities in order to launch a nuclear attack on China, an American writer says.

In response to Trump’s dire warnings, North Korea said it was "carefully examining" a plan to strike the American Pacific territory of Guam with missiles. 

The North Korean military said it could carry out a pre-emptive strike if there were signs of an American provocation.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has ordered the production of more rocket warheads and engines, shortly after the United States suggested that its threats of military action and sanctions were having an impact on Pyongyang’s behavior.

Pyongyang says it will not give up on its nuclear deterrence unless Washington ends its hostile policy toward the country and dissolves the US-led UN command in South Korea. Thousands of US soldiers are stationed in South Korea and Japan.

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