Annihilating North Korea

US President Donald Trump lived up to his reputation as America’s most volatile and impulsive President ever during his maiden address to the UN General Assembly. Even the most clairvoyant analyst would not have predicted that he would not just threaten to totally destroy North Korea and mock its President but also disparage the efforts of those trying to get Kim Jong-un see reason. Trump has shown his disregard for institutions and their processes right from his inauguration by sacking nearly four dozen ambassadors. The result: India does not have a US envoy while the tiny Sri Lanka has one. Having already sent the normal channels of conducting diplomacy in a tailspin, his single sentence damning North Korea, besides Russia and China, may be the biggest blow to US diplomacy yet.

The offensive tone of President Trump’s speech is unlikely to persuade China and Russia to support more sanctions on North Korea and may even persuade them to lend back-handed support to Pyongyang. None of his allies are also going to be on board for a nuclear weapon-led military action that will impose horrendous casualties in the Korean Peninsula as also on Trump’s fellow citizens and the Japanese if Kim opts for preemptory strikes. If Kim was guilty of dangerous overreach by sending missiles over Japan, Trump has joined him in the dunce’s corner.

By making the ultimate threat of use of nuclear weapons, Trump has also inadvertently strengthened Kim domestically. Trump has gifted the North Korean enough domestic political capital to ride over the hardships of the fresh round of sanctions. And if Trump also tries to go back on the Iran nuclear deal, both China and Russia would have enough reasons to suspect that the neo-Con vision of a unipolar world is once again in play. Instead of continuing to assist the US, they would be more inclined to let Trump stew in the embarrassment of the world’s most powerful nation not being able to carry out a threat broadcast no less from the global high table against the world’s economic and political basket case.