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CSUSB professor comments on rising tensions on the Korean peninsulaPress TVNov. 29, 2017
Tensions on the Korean Peninsula show no signs of abating as the U.S. threatens to destroy North Korea, which recently tested a ballistic missile capable of reaching the United States' mainland, if a war breaks out. Those comments were made on Nov. 29, by Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, at an emergency UN Security Council meeting.
David Yaghoubian, CSUSB professor of history, was asked to comment on the continuing tensions on the Korean peninsula.
He said that Russia's ambassador 'made it clear that actions needed to be taken on both sides to lower the spiral of tensions, as he called it. Specifically, he did call on North Korea to refrain from further ballistic missile testing and nuclear weapons testing; but as well, (he) made the specific request that the planned December military exercises with combined American and South Korean forces do not go forward because they would purely be provocative.'
Yaghoubian also added, 'I think the world community needs to look at the bigger picture here, and that is the North Korean government feels its survival is being threatened. It truly believes that. And it looks at the historical precedents, the recent historical precedent of Libya and Iraq, and firmly states the position that it is not going to be deterred from its pursuit of weapons that it can use to defend itself. And considering North Korea's history of suffering and the loss of million to war, as a historian, I can understand this position, even though contemporarily, politically speaking, I might not fully agree with it because I am for nuclear weapons' non-proliferation.'
More sanctions by the Chinese and the international community may not work. What could work, Yaghoubian said, is a strong statement by the U.S. and its allies that they have no interest in attacking North Korea, 'and can actually back that up by removing American forces from the Korean peninsula and beginning to dial down militarism and the armaments that are currently being increased in South Korea as a result of these tensions.'
Press TV is a 24-hour English language news and documentary network affiliated with Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting.
See the complete interview at “U.S. threatens to ‘utterly destroy’ North Korea.”
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