Since the start of the Trump administration, North Korea has been the number one item on the foreign affairs agenda. Unlike the Obama administration, which basically swept dictator Kim Jung Un’s ballistic missile tests under the rug, the buck has stopped at Trump’s desk.
The United States and its allies have reached a crisis point in the sophistication of North Korea’s testing of ICBM missiles that will conceivably be able to reach the U.S. West Coast within a short time. Furthermore, the North Koreans may sell their technology to the highest bidder for liquid currency which the nation needs desperately.
On Tuesday, President Donald Trump demanded the evacuation of US citizens from South Korea as part of a drill named Courageous Channel, military sources have revealed. Sources close to the decision base it on a potential conflict breaking out at any time on the Korean Peninsula.
The operation, which is presumably set to take place in June, is viewed as yet another veiled threat to the North Korean regime showing them that Trump is ready to do what it takes to stop the nuclear program.
The evacuation will include some 230,000 Americans. Presumably it is to remove them from harm’s way should an all-out armed conflict take place.
The ugly scenario of a North Korean attack would include the safety of tens of thousands of American civilians, including military dependents residing in and around the capital city of Seoul. The capital city is only 15-miles from the most heavily guarded demilitarized zone in the world. They would very likely be in the middle of the crossfire.
Perhaps the last vestige of hope to avoid an armed conflict is North Korea’s only true ally; China. Thus far China has banned coal shipments from their raucous neighbor, postponed direct commercial air flights between the two countries and moved troops to the border.
However, without the removal of the North Korean dictator by assassination or removal by his own military, the chance of open warfare is very real. How long Donald Trump is willing to wait depends heavily on what the Chinese do to stop the North Korean mad man.
