“The Sound of a Barking Dog”: Trump and Kim Jong-Un at the U.N.

This past week Donald Trump ratcheted up his threats against North Korea and its leader Kim Jong-Un, using the podium at the United Nations and Twitter in his reckless war of words against a nation that now has hydrogen weapons and a rapidly developing long-range missile delivery system.

The verbal assault and incitement have appalled and frightened governments and people all over the world, especially those in South Korea, Japan, Guam, Hawaii, and the west coast of the continental U.S.

This past summer as North Korea continued testing its missile delivery system for nuclear weapons and remonstrated against new trade sanctions engineered by the U.S. with China, Trump stated in response to earlier North Korean provocations that:

“North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. . . . [Kim] has been very threatening . . . [and] they will be met with fire and fury and frankly power, the likes of which this world has never seen before.”

The world shuddered.

Then North Korean General Kim Rak Gyom responded that:

“Sound dialogue is not possible with such a guy bereft of reason and only absolute force can work on him.”

Many experienced globalists were stunned.

Trump then tweeted that:

“Military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely. Hopefully Kim Jong-Un will find another path!”

Wow. A maleficent taunt of unmistakable danger.

Later that day Trump added to his threats when he told reporters that:

“If he utters one threat in the form of an overt threat . . . or if he does anything with respect to Guam, or any place else that is an American territory or an America ally, he will truly regret it and he will regret it fast.”

We all began to imagine the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust. Not a pretty picture.

Prior to his first speech before the General Assembly of the U.N. on September 19th, Donald Trump was repeatedly warned by senior aides “not to deliver a personal attack on North Korea’s leader . . . [because] insulting the young despot in such a prominent venue could irreparably escalate tensions and shut off any chance for negotiations to defuse the nuclear crisis.”

Nevertheless, ignoring his speech draft and substituting his own ad hoc incendiary language—after having publicly derided Kim Jong-Un as “Rocket Man” in a tweet this past week—Trump repeated that language before the General Assembly on September 19th (whereupon General Kelly buried his face in his hands in despair):

“The United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea. Rocket man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime.”

Murmurs spread throughout the General Assembly hall. “You could feel a wind had gone into the room when he said that,” a U.N. diplomat said. “People were taken aback. There were rumblings.” This official said that it was the first time in his memory that a world leader has called for the obliteration of another state at the U.N.G.A., noting that even Iran's most fiery leaders didn't similarly threaten Israel.

No, Donald. You don’t hurl schoolyard threats to a young, monomaniacal leftover descended from Korean War aggressors whose back is now pressed against the wall and who may therefore feel he has little to lose. You don’t taunt a young successor who is still finding his place at the head of a dangerous closed society that has already starved millions of its citizens in its quest to rule its part of the world with absolute authority. You don’t take such risks.

Hence, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho, who had compared Trump’s U.N. speech to “the sound of a barking dog,” warned Trump and the western world that Pyongyang might test a hydrogen bomb in the Pacific as a response.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un issued his own statement at that juncture, calling Trump a “frightened dog” and a “gangster,” adding that “I will surely and definitely tame the mentally deranged U.S. dotard with fire.” Why be conservative when your adversary is threatening to firebomb you and your country out of existence?

And as Trump’s closest advisers had made clear to Trump, Kim did not take kindly to being mocked in front of 200 world leaders on the U.N. stage.

Readers scrambled for their dictionaries, finding “dotard” defined as an old person who is in a “state or period of senile decay marked by decline of mental poise and alertness.” The term apparently originated at least five centuries ago, in Late Middle English.

Sounds accurate when applied to Donald Trump, if not highly inflammable—just like Trump’s careless threats to annihilate North Korea.

Never one to let an insult of such magnitude pass, Trump then responded on Twitter that:

“Kim Jong Un of North Korea, who is obviously a madman who doesn't mind starving or killing his people, will be tested like never before!”

(I.e., I’ll see your “dotard” and raise you one “madman.”)

New financial sanctions against North Korea were then announced by Trump to affect other countries, foreign businesses, and individuals who do business with North Korea, a move aimed chiefly at North Korea’s biggest trading partner, China.

Meanwhile, diplomats at the U.N. gasped, residents of South Korea, Japan, Guam, and Hawaii flinched and worried, U.S. naval ships continued maneuvers in the South China Sea, and no one in the White House appeared able to snatch Trump’s cell phone away from Donald’s busy little hands.

The risks of a nuclear conflagration in the Pacific horrify heads of state and Pacific-area residents alike.

World leaders have characterized the exchanges of threats as follows:

— U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres urged the DPRK (North Korea) to comply with U.N. resolutions and condemned its nuclear tests, the sixth of which took place just weeks ago. “Fiery talk can lead to fatal misunderstandings. This is a time for statesmanship. We must not sleepwalk our way into war,” Guterres warned as he opened the General Assembly.

— French President Emmanuel Macron, who indicated that “our responsibility . . . is through resolve to bring North Korea to the negotiation table for a political settlement to this conflict. . . . France rejects escalation.” Later he underscored the point, saying, “Any military intervention must be avoided.”

— German Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned Trump's threat to “totally destroy” the reclusive North Korean state. Merkel said sanctions and diplomacy were the only way to get a nuclear armed state to the negotiating table. “I am against such threats,” said Merkel. ‘We consider any form of military solution as totally inappropriate and we insist on a diplomatic solution.”

— UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson added that “no-one in their right mind” wants military action between the rogue state and the U.S. He warned that “going in too hard will cause a catastrophe,” and added candidly that “I do not see any good military options.”

— Chinese foreign minister spokesman Lu Kang reiterated that the situation was “complicated and sensitive.” Further, he said, “all relevant parties should exercise restraint instead of provoking each other.”

— Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, describing the exchanges between Trump and Kim Jong-Un as “a kindergarten fight between children,” added that “we have to calm down the hot heads.”

When I was a five-year-old kindergarten student and trouble would erupt in the classroom, the miscreants would be sent to a table or corner for a “time out” to think over their aggressive or selfish conduct, to reconsider their actions and cool off.

If any of you, dear readers, can remember a time when Donald Trump reconsidered his incendiary actions or comments in a careful, thoughtful manner, I invite you to let the world know how this was effectuated . . . before we are all blown to kingdom come.