North Korea is on the verge of developing an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of striking the United States.
The surviving, struggling communist totalitarian state has been steadily, relentlessly developing missiles with expanding ranges, but this would represent a major—and extremely ominous—technological advance.
South Korea President Lee Jae Myung announced this publicly on September 25 in New York City, while hosting a session for investors at the New York Stock Exchange. He and his nation’s delegation were in the city for the annual General Assembly of the United Nations (GAUN).
The theme of this year’s eightieth session was “Eighty Years and More for Peace, Development and Human Rights.”
President Lee no doubt got the attention of his audience by mentioning the spectre of nuclear weapons that could directly threaten the continental United States in the hands of the bizarre rogue regime in Pyongyang. Fortunately, there remain reassuring factors. Knowledgeable experts remain skeptical of the North Koreans’ ability to guide their missiles accurately or protect warheads as the reenter the atmosphere of the earth from space.
He went on to emphasize, shrewdly, that President Donald Trump is essential to any diplomatic progress with Pyongyang. Trump indicated in August that he wanted to have another meeting with North Korea leader Kim Jung Un, possibly as early as this year.
Lee, who assumed office in June, has been working to reopen dialogue with the North. So far, however, there has been nothing but hostility from that side.
North Korea is contributing combat troops to aid Russia in Ukraine. At the start of this year, Pyongyang fired artillery barrages near a maritime buffer zone.
On the west coast, Pyongyang wants to move the maritime border south. Roads and railroads linking North and South have been shut down. The North is jamming GPS signals in the South.
Meanwhile, South Korea continues on a positive course of exceptional economic growth and development, combined with representative democracy.
As recently as the early 1960s, South Korea was one of the poorest economies in the world. Still a peasant society, the entire Korean peninsula was devastated by the Korean War of 1950-53. Yet today, the Republic of Korea ranks among the strongest economies in the world, holding leadership roles in the automobile, advanced electronics, shipbuilding and other industries.
Capping the democratic transition, after years of harsh dictatorship, was the election of Kim Dae-jung as president in 1998. He completed his five-year term without interruption, and in 2000 received the Nobel Peace Prize.
A public symbol of opposition to dictatorship, he was imprisoned for several years. On another occasion, government agents kidnapped him. Only the intervention of senior U.S. CIA official Don Gregg saved his life.
South Korea’s remarkable domestic accomplishments have unfolded while the country becomes increasingly influential in global arenas. In 2012, the Obama administration shrewdly nominated President Jim Yong Kim of Dartmouth College, who was born in Seoul Korea, as President of the World Bank.
The vision of the United Nations combines favoring very powerful nations and inclusive global representation. Kim and former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon personify South Korea’s significant role as a bridge between developed and developing nations.
Market economies and representative governments now characterize a steadily increasing share of the world’s developing nations. In short, South Korea is positioned to lead developing nations toward prosperity.
Scare stories about actions of the North overshadow the good news regarding the South. That is unfortunate.
Arthur I. Cyr is author of “After the Cold War – American Foreign Policy, Europe and Asia.”
Contact acyr@carthage.edu