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N Korea building up military to avoid fate of Libya, Iraq: Writer

(FILES) This undated file picture released from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on February 2, 2015 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (centre L) speaking with Hwang Pyong-So (centre R) as he meets with the participants in a meeting of military and political cadres at an undisclosed location in North Korea.

North Korea is building up a formidable military in order to avoid the fate of Libya and Iraq, an American writer and retired professor says.

James Petras, who has written dozens of books on international issues, made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Tuesday while commenting on US threats against North Korea.

Next week, the US state of Hawaii is resuming monthly statewide testing of its Cold War-era nuclear attack warning sirens for the first time in almost three decades citing a threat of war between the US and North Korea.

Emergency management officials in Hawaii said on Monday the state is restarting the practice in preparation for a potential nuclear missile attack from North Korea, Reuters reported. 

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“It’s very clear that the US has taken a very aggressive position towards an essentially defensive posture adopted by the North Korean government, including its development of nuclear power,” Professor Petras said.

“But I think it’s very clear that North Koreans are also interested in negotiating some kind of permanent peace treaty, and that’s been on their agenda for many, many years.  And Washington has at times entered into negotiations but failed on the fundamental issue of ending sanctions and beginning a process of accommodation,” he added.

“I think the US at this point has increased its military threats, and both naval, air and ground forces around North Korea to impose sanctions, and has not at all accepted ongoing negotiations that China and Russia have urged,” he stated.

“I think it’s very dangerous because the US government at this time led by President Trump has made North Korea the centerpiece of a global conflict. And North Korea will not back down. It realizes that giving up its capacity for retaliation it will suffer the fate of Iraq and Libya,” the analyst noted.

“So I think given the precedent of recent history where the countries which have not appropriate military capacity to resist are inviting attacks,” he said.

“So I think we have to go back and reconsider the conditions of co-existence, and that begins by organizing negotiations and not increasing the military threats which provoke North Korea to look at a counterattack or counter-response,” he observed.

“And this of course has escalated, and this is very dangerous at this time,” concluded the scholar.

The White House has already warned the United States is ready to use its nuclear weapons against North Korea if the country continues to threaten Washington or its allies, amid escalating tensions between the two countries.

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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