ASU professor says denuclearization of North Korea unlikely without war
Aug 14, 2017, 1:17 PM | Updated: 2:04 pm
(AP Photo/Jon Chol Jin, File)
(AP Photo/Jon Chol Jin, File)
PHOENIX — An Arizona State University professor said Monday that it was difficult to picture a scenario in which North Korea is forced to denuclearize that does not end in war.
“If we stick with our strategic end-state being denuclearization, then we’re talking war and limited strikes are not going to take care of the problem if we decide truly we cannot live with a nuclear North Korea,” Scott Silverstone, a senior fellow with the school’s Center on the Future of War, said.
Silverstone said the chances of the issue being resolved through diplomatic means were slim to none.
“I don’t see the Kim (Jong Un) regime volunteering [to give up their nuclear weapons], no matter how tough the economic sanctions are, no matter how much the world rallies around a solid diplomatic front,” he said.
“This is a paranoid regime that’s dedicated to survival and they’ll take very drastic measures.”
Silverstone, who is also the director of the international relations program at West Point, said North Korea’s development of miniaturized nuclear weapons was likely done as a deterrent to protect the small Asian country.
“Their drive for nuclear weapons is driven by their sense of vulnerability and not with a desire to lash out, but as that last gasp to keep the outside world from crashing down on their heads,” he said.
Silverstone claimed North Korean leaders were worried their reign could be brought to an end should the United States or other world powers get involved.
“[Un] has said openly the mistakes (former Iraq President) Saddam Hussein and (former Libya Prime Minister) Moammar Gadhafi made was defying the United States without nuclear weapons to deter an American invasion.”
However, Silverstone said the United States’ missile defense system could act as a deterrent to North Korea in its own right.
“If the United States has a robust missile defense system, then any attack by North Korea would be blunted before the missiles impacted, that may have a very positive effect on North Korean behavior,” he said.
