At the start of his 10-day trip across Asia, Vice President Mike Pence took an unscheduled detour to visit the military demarcation line that separates North and South Korea. Standing near the razor-wire-covered border, Pence warned Pyongyang that “the era of strategic patience is over.” Wearing a brown bomber’s jacket and a steely expression, the vice president declared, “President Trump has made it clear that the patience of the United States and our allies in this region has run out and we want to see change. We want to see North Korea abandon its reckless path of the development of nuclear weapons.”
Although the vice president stressed the U.S. wants to see a peaceful resolution to the issue, he starkly warned that North Korea could suffer the same fate as Syria and Afghanistan. Both nations were bombed earlier this month in what many say were thinly veiled warnings to Pyongyang.
Pence’s visit to the DMZ came a day after the regime suffered epic embarrassment when a test missile exploded seconds after launch. Coming at the end of a week of celebration honoring the 105th birthday of North Korea’s founder Kim Sung-Il, the launch appeared to have been intended as act of defiance against U.S. warships nearing the Korean peninsula.
Many experts are questioning whether the failed launch was caused by North Korean incompetence or was the result of a U.S. cyber attack. Former British foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkin told the BBC that there is a strong probablity that the U.S. has played a role in North Korean failed test launches several times before.
In 2014, President Obama ordered increased cyber attacks and electronic warfare against the North Korean dictatorship. In the years since, Pyongyang has experienced significant increases in the number of failed missile launches. And it seems that Sunday’s launch was anticipated by the U.S. An unnamed foreign policy adviser traveling with Pence told Reuters, “We had good intelligence before the launch and good intelligence after the launch. It’s a failed test (and) it follows another failed test. . . We don’t need to expend any resources against that. It wasn’t a matter of if — it was a matter of when.”
During his Monday visit, Pence also noted he was heartened by early signs from China’s leaders that they would do more to convince North Korean dictator Kim Jung-un to give up his nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs. Trump has urged China to rein in North Korea. It appears that Beijing may be acquiescing to U.S. requests. Lately, China has spoken out against Kim’s WMD testing and it has supported U.N. sanctions against the rogue regime.
Perhaps the pressure from Beijing will help. The poverty-stricken nation needs China’s help to ward off mass starvation. The regime is very fragile — as witnessed by its frequent executions of senior military and intelligence officials. In February, Kim’s half-brother was murdered in a Malaysian airport. Kim needs to perpetuate the image of a threatening outside enemy to justify his repressive existence.
On Friday, Air China suspended its Beijing-Pyongyang route, while in February China banned all imports of North Korean coal. On April 7, Chinese customs officials ordered North Korean coal shipments to be returned. Hopefully, the pressure from North Korea’s lone ally will help defuse the rapidly rising tensions in the region.