The US is trying to embroil South Korea in conflict with its Northern neighbor in a bit to oust its current government without taking heavy US casualties, political writer and journalist Dan Glazebrook told RT.
The Oxford-based expert believes that only stopping US military
provocations will bring stability to the region.
RT:What do you think about the warning of North Korea telling international embassies to evacuate their staff? It sounds pretty dire, doesn’t it?
Dan Glazebrook: Their intention has been clear from the start of this crisis. North Korea’s whole intention is to show its willingness and preparedness to defend itself should war be launched upon it. Every year we have these massive provocations of joint US and South Korean war games exercises right at the borders of North Korea. This year the provocations were stepped up to actually simulate a nuclear missile attack on North Korea. B2 bombers were used for the first time along with B52s and F22 bombers. So there is a military provocation from the US. North Korea feels rightly threatened – they’ve seen what’s happened to Iraq, to Libya and so on. It feels threatened because it knows it was in the explicit hit-list of the American government some years ago. It needs to make very clear that it will not tolerate any kind of infringement of its sovereignty, any kind of attack, and this is all about to show that it’s willing to defend itself.
RT:We're receiving reports of an earthquake near North Korea - do you believe there could be any links with the country's nuclear intentions?
DG: Well, I think we should wait and see what happens, but of course constantly North Korea has this policy called the Army First policy, where it’s constantly trying to develop its nuclear and military resources to defend itself. Again, the lessons of Iraq and Libya are very clear – Saddam Hussein gave up his weapons program and we saw what happened to Iraq as a result, kind of [Muammar] Gaddafi gave up his weapons program and we saw what happened to Libya as a result. So they are constantly trying to upgrade their weapons in order to defend themselves. Of course, one of the reasons for this constant annual provocation, these war games exercises, is to keep tensions of the peninsular high to justify the massive US military presence – it’s one of the most militarized regions on the entire planet.
RT:Is there anything Washington can do to prevent a full scale confrontation in case North Korea is determined to take it to the extreme?
DG: Of course, they can stop launching these provocations, stop simulating nuclear strikes against North Korea on its border. The thing is that they would love to occupy North Korea, they would love to have troops right upon the border of China. What stops them every time is that they calculate their losses would be in the magnitude of tens and tens of thousands of soldiers. What they would dearly love then, the US and its allies, would be actually to get South Korea into a new Korean War in which South Korea took all the casualties. This is why the North is so determined to make it clear that if the US and its allies attempt to provoke some kind of inter-Korean conflict they will have to pay a heavy price for that.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.