The ultimate nightmare

Many people claim that even if North Korea possesses nuclear weapons, it would never use them against its compatriots in the south. That is a fatally naive assumption that fails to see through the evil nature of communism and the destructive effect of nuclear weapons.

Communist leaders consider people with the same blood - or any individual for that matter - as mere cogs in the machine of revolution. Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union was the first dictator to rearrange these parts in mass slaughters. He killed millions of his compatriots and sent tens of millions into exile in Siberia and other frontier regions.

There are many leaders like Stalin in the history of communism. Kim Il Sung started the 1950-53 Korean War, which resulted in millions of casualties. To Kim, South Koreans were not his own people but parts of the capitalist machine that needed to be destroyed. Mao Zedong severely suppressed the Chinese people during the Cultural Revolution. Cambodia’s Pol Pot massacred 2 million of his own people, a quarter of the entire population.

Stalin, Kim Il Sung, Mao Zedong and Pol Pot were cruel to their people because of the nature of communism. They may have individually had belligerent personalities or a love of chaos. But communism encouraged their hostility as it denies the individual for the sake of the “whole.” Such a destructive essence is in the blood of Kim Jong-il and Kim Jong-un, the son and grandson of Kim Il Sung. They let their own people starve and kill opponents. They persecute people in concentration camps.

In 1956, Nikita Khrushchev denounced the legacy of Stalin, driving his specter from Russia. But no one has stepped forward to criticize North Korean leaders. Their evil ghosts still haunting the country in the 21st century. It is hardly a difficult task for an evil spirit to launch a nuclear attack on the South.

The United States was the first country in history to use nuclear weapons. When America dropped atomic bombs on two Japanese cities, Washington was being completely rational. The United States nominated four cities - Kyoto, Hiroshima, Kokura and Nagasaki - as targets. The purpose of the United States was to discourage Japan’s will to fight back. They calmly considered which cities to bomb in order to shock Japan psychologically and militarily.

Given that nuclear bombs were dropped coolly and rationally, it’s even easier to imagine in an unreasonable situation. When an aberrant entity like North Korea finds itself in an abnormal situation, it may be sorely tempted to use its nukes. Once it puts a nuclear warhead on a missile, Pyongyang may be tempted to seek a rushed unification of the Korean Peninsula. North Korea can also make an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) nuclear bomb. The electromagnetic field from the explosion would paralyze electronic, electric and communication networks in Seoul and elsewhere.

A nuclear missile could be fired over Seoul, and EMP bombs could be sent via missiles to the military commands in Daejeon or Osan. The North’s armed forces could then launch a full-scale invasion of the South with special forces in the rear. If a nuclear bomb exploded in Seoul, the Blue House, the Ministry of National Defense and the Korea-U.S. Joint Command would likely be destroyed. In retaliation, the United States would strike Pyongyang with nuclear bombs. But Kim Jong-il and the North Korean command would be already hiding in underground bunkers in another location.

North Korean and ROK forces would engage in battles in the South. What would happen if the national command is incapacitated by a nuclear attack and South Koreans lost the will to fight back? The North would take over the South and demand the United States call a truce. If Washington did not agree, Pyongyang would threaten to launch its nuclear missiles against the U.S. Forces in South Korea and Tokyo. What would the United States do? Would it make a sacrifice and drive away North Korea? Even if the United States won the war, how would we rebuild Seoul and Pyongyang after they were devastated by nuclear attacks?

The biggest problem in South Korea is that too many people are insensitive to communism. They don’t understand the nature of communism. North Korea’s powerful men, such as Kim Jong-un, Choi Yong-hae, Kim Kyok-sik and Kim Yong-chol, may not have been born monsters. The evil ideology of communism made them so. The ghosts of communism may move their fingers to press the launch button.

Therefore, Seoul has to use all available means to prevent Pyongyang’s nuclear arming. We must take action, either to change the belligerent regime for a less destructive one or by eliminating the nuclear facilities. If not, Seoul may become another Hiroshima.

*The author is an editorial writer of the JoongAng Ilbo.

by Kim Jin