EDITORIAL: North Korea taking aim at Texas, no joke
Possibility of nuclear missile attack on the Texas state capital gets serious attention
The North Korean threats against the United States are hitting close to home. One of the latest threats from North Korea is to Houston’s neighbor and state capital, Austin.
How much cause for concern should U.S. citizens, more importantly Texans, give this latest threat?
The answer: more concern than has been given.
North Korea is dangerous for many reasons. It is known for threats to its neighbors, it is nuclear, and its dictator, Kim Jon-un, is psychotic.
In 2006, North Korea pushed its neighbors, China, Japan and South Korea, to the brink of war suggesting it was going to use nuclear weapons on them. Is Texas next?
A previous threat issued in 2006 resulted in nothing happening. What is the different this time?
North Korea’s leader is young, delusional and has nuclear weapons. North Korea is armed and not afraid to admit it.
On numerous occasions North Korea has insisted that it is a nuclear power country that has no problem using the weapons when its leadership feels it is necessary or warranted.
This time it has urged its dignitaries to leave the embassies of the countries it has targeted, as well as advising foreigners to leave South Korea.
China, Japan and South Korea have been taking the latest North Korean threats with a grain of salt, but not blowing them off as just rhetoric.
China has already chimed in stating that it is prepared to retaliate if needed.
The U.S. has taken many precautionary steps to ensure our safety in case the threats from North Korea are real. Warships and missile defenses have been sent to the surrounding areas, including Guam and South Korea, to ensure that if any missiles are launched, they can be intercepted.
Additionally, the U.S. has started flying surveillance and strike aircrafts in the region.
Kim Jong-il, the former supreme leader of North Korea was responsible for past threats posed to the countries near North Korea. He was a military man, having served for several years prior to becoming supreme leader.
His son and current supreme leader, Kim Jong-un, had very little military experience prior to becoming the supreme leader.
Kim Jon-un is trying to show his might by flexing his military muscle, but since he does not have the experience of a person who has had an ample amount of military training, he may not know when to step back and re-evaluate the situation.
His age and lack of maturity could account for why he trying to over compensate by pushing his military muscle, or perhaps he is trying too quickly to gain the North Korean people’s allegiance.
He is also using propaganda to rally his citizens. Videos demonstrating the alleged power of North Korean leaders are shown in movie theaters and on state-run television.
Some of the videos target the U.S., spreading falsehoods about how we live as well as showing faked attacks on our cities, including Washington, D.C.
Do you like coffee? Well you cannot get it in the U.S. according to one North Korean video about our country. We eat snow for water, have no birds because we eat them, and the only coffee we can get is given to us by North Korea.
We also have no homes; we live in tents and other temporary shelters.
These types of videos portray the U.S. as weak in order to build support for Kim Jun-un and his military aggression among the North Korean people.
Why should we care? Haven’t they done this before? They can’t reach us, right?
We have to take this seriously and not blow it off because inexperience and delusions of grandeur can be dangerous. Kim Jong-un could make a severe miscalculation and spiral this situation downward.
Kim Jun-un is acting like a bully, and just like most bullies, if we stand up, prepare ourselves, and show we mean business, it is likely he will back down.
