North Korea is projecting confidence in its response to large-scale US-led military drills this week, according to one analyst.
The United States and allied countries joined with Seoul this week to launch a massive joint military exercise in South Korea.
The operation, known as “Freedom Shield,” takes place annually, although observers say this year’s efforts were much larger than in years past. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), typically known in the West as North Korea, lambasted the “provocative large-scale joint military exercises” which the country claimed demonstrate “more clearly who is the [one] threatening humanity with nuclear weapons.”
Although promoted as a show of military strength, peace activist KJ Noh insisted the massive drills are instead a sign of “the desperation of the United States to trigger a war” in an interview on Sputnik’s The Critical Hour program Tuesday.
“On the one hand it’s like that bar drunk who, as the bar is closing, decides that he’s not going to go home without a fight and he challenges everybody to a fight,” said Noh to host Garland Nixon. “But another way of thinking about it is that the US sincerely believes – the ruling elite sincerely believe that they can wage a multi-front war.”
“So here we see that the US wants war with China [and] is clearly escalating towards doing everything logistically, operationally, tactically, to prepare for war,” he added. “And the question simply becomes where, how and when.”
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The United States has made no secret that it sees China’s economic rise as a major threat to its own global hegemony. Recent US defense authorization bills have devoted significant resources towards alleged “unprecedented threats” from the Asian world power. Meanwhile the recent announcement of a major restructuring within the US Army revealed efforts are being made to strengthen US forces in the Pacific.
A recent article on analyst John Menadue’s website speculated the United States may seek to duplicate its strategy against Russia with regards to the Donbass Conflict in Ukraine by stoking a similar proxy war to drain Beijing’s resources. Korea is viewed as a prime target for such interference.
“The Korean Peninsula is probably one of the most likely places for war to happen,” agreed Noh, adding “it’s the easiest place to provoke a war” given longstanding tensions between governments on either side of the 38th parallel.
“These exercises in Korea are always huge, they’re some of the largest exercises on the planet,” Noh said. ” It creates incredible risk and incredible instability… they have doubled the number of field training exercises – again, a very, very dangerous and belligerent move.”
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The drills may also be a response to North Korea’s expanded cooperation with regional allies in recent years as speculation emerges the country may join China’s Belt and Road Initiative, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), or even the BRICS bloc.
“I do think there is an attempt to bring North Korea back into the community of nations,” said Noh, adding that economic sanctions against the country could be challenged at the United Nations with sufficient global support. Although the country is frequently demonized in the West, Noh noted the DPRK has a record of setting a “moral example.”
“It was the first country outside of the Arab world to recognize the Palestinians and their liberation struggle,” the activist recalled. Noh warned that countries seeking to cooperate with efforts to threaten the DPRK should take care to learn from the example of European countries like Germany, whose economy has been wrecked by US-led sanctions on Russian energy.
Although the DPRK strongly criticized this week’s military drills Noh claimed the country, along with Russia and China, is still projecting a sense of “confidence” in its continued development as larger trends favor non-Western nations. Meanwhile the United States increasingly suffers from political and economic instability as its efforts to defeat Russia in the Donbass falter.
“North Korea doesn’t want war, China doesn’t want war, Russia certainly doesn’t want expanded war – they know that time is on its side, the empire is collapsing from within,” said Noh. “And their approach is to stand back and not to get pulled into an unnecessary war.”
Chinese Leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin shake hands after signing a joint statement on deepening comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation and on the plan for development of key areas of the economic cooperation until 2030 at the Kremlin, in Moscow, Russia. – Sputnik International, 1920, 08.02.2024
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By John Miles
Published by Sputnik Globe
Republished by The 21st Century
The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of 21cir.com