International security

Did the U.S. Teach North Korea's Kim a Lesson?

As to what the U.S. can do about the missile and bomb tests, the short answer is nothing. Yes, a Security Council meeting has been called for by Rex Tillerson, and yes, there will be more sanctions. But North Korea is already the most sanctioned country in the world, and it has had zero effect. Further sanctions will make little difference. They have the Chinese lifeline and China will never allow a South Korea that has swallowed the North on its doorstep. It prefers a buffer state.

The fact remains, nuclear weapons have become a form of insurance for small states. Kim Jong Un has seen what happened to Muammar Gaddafi in Libya. He abandoned his quest for nuclear weapons in exchange for economic progress and rapprochement with the West. It was a fatal miscalculation. Libya was destroyed and he lost his life.

Saddam Hussein made a similar mistake i n Iraq . It might have been apparent to thinking observers why Hans Blix, the Swedish diplomat and former Foreign Minister heading the International Atomic Agency, and his team had not discovered any Weapons of Mass Destruction. The Bush team ignored him, came up with the notorious slogan of 'the smoking gun will be a mushroom cloud' and went ahead with the Iraq invasion. When no WMD were found, they changed the mission to bringing democracy in Iraq. The country is devastated.

The result of these military adventures is at least a million dead, millions more displaced, a refugee crisis causing dissension in Europe, and a Britain exiting the EU. The economic cost to the U.S. is in the order of $5 trillion.