Things Are Heating Up With North Korea

After a week which saw the United States strike the Assad regime in Syria with Tomahawk missiles, it now appears that North Korea may be next on the agenda.

North Korea, banned from any missile or nuclear testing by the UN, has been on close watch from the international community after firing ballistics missiles into the Sea of Japan earlier this month. Those launches follow previous missile launches earlier this year. 

Following the March incidents, U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner stated, "The United States strongly condemns the DPRK's ballistic missile launches tonight, which violate UN Security Council Resolutions explicitly prohibiting North Korea's launches using ballistic missile technology".

After Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping met with President Trump last week, Beijing state media is now threatening an attack on North Korea's nuclear facilities if it crosses China's "bottom line":

“China has a bottom line that it will protect at all costs, that is, the security and stability of northeast China... If the bottom line is touched, China will employ all means available including the military means to strike back. By that time, it is not an issue of discussion whether China acquiesces in the US’ blows, but the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) will launch attacks to DPRK nuclear facilities on its own."

This threat comes after Chinese state-funded media site China Military began warning last month that there is "little time left to solve Korean Peninsula nuclear issue peacefully". Meanwhile, U.S. media is now reporting on the deployment of U.S. warships to the Korean peninsula.

Adding to the immediacy of the issue, President Trump has been tweeting about the need for China to "solve the North Korea problem". He has promised the Chinese a better trade deal with the U.S. if they cooperate in putting pressure on Pyongyang. 

Before Trump's meeting with Xi, he made clear that the U.S. is willing to solve the problem on its own if the Chinese won't take the lead. "If China is not going to solve North Korea, we will. That is all I am telling you," Trump said in an interview with UK newspaper the Financial Times.

Following his meeting with President Trump, Xi appears to be increasing economic pressure on Pyongyang. After heightening sanctions on North Korea in February, China ordered North Korean coal ships out of its ports on April 7th.

Coal is a major export from North Korea to China. It now appears that the Chinese are shifting to American coal imports. Some see American coal as a path to friendship between China and the U.S.

In response to the deployment of U.S. ships to the area, North Korea has issued a strong threat of nuclear attack. The state's official newspaper issued a statement that its "revolutionary strong army is keenly watching every move by enemy elements with our nuclear sight focused on the U.S. invasionary bases not only in South Korea and the Pacific operation theater but also in the U.S. mainland". 

U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis has previously warned North Korea of an "effective and overwhelming" response, should the country use nuclear weapons in any capacity. In March, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made it clear that military action is "on the table", suggesting that preemptive military action would be taken if the threat rises.

The National Security Council recently presented President Trump with options for handling the North Korean nuclear issue. As reported by NBC, those options included placing nuclear missiles in South Korea, assassinating leader Kim Jong-Un, and covert action, headed by the CIA, to infiltrate the country and attack key infrastructure from within.

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