Sanctions vs North Korea have never worked

I’m glad that during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) 50th Regional Forum in Manila last Saturday, the Foreign Ministers expressed their concern over North Korea’s constant intercontinental ballistic missile tests, which threatens not only the ASEAN Region, but the entire Asia as well. I’m a Korean War baby and in the last 66 years, nothing has changed in North Korea, except for the change in leadership from Kim Il-Sung, to Kim Jong-Il to Kim Jong-un. Clearly this is Communist dictatorship at its worst!

What remains unchanged since is the North Korean’s hatred for the United States because without the intervention of US Troops (it was the first time that America fought a war under the United Nations banner) because without the US, the Korean Peninsula could have become another communist state under the Dictatorship of Kim Il-Sung! But lest you folks have already forgotten, the Korean War was a proxy war between the Communists (Red China and the USSR) against the US, which led the UN Forces.

When then Gen. Douglas MacArthur learned that the over 200,000 Chinese Communist troops had crossed the Yalu River, Gen. MacArthur already thought of using his nuclear arsenal. The idea of using nuclear bombs scared then Pres. Harry Truman who was the first and only US President to use nuclear bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Incidentally, tomorrow Aug. 9th is the 72nd anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki and hopefully it should be a reminder to all nations never again should any nation use nuclear weapons in anger.

When Pres. Truman learned about the threat of Gen. MacArthur to nuke China, he had the American Caesar fired! I have read many books about Gen. MacArthur and Mr. Jim Zobel the Curator of the MacArthur Memorial in Norfolk, Virginia is a personal friend of mine whom I once interviewed on my TV Talkshow Straight from the Sky when he was in Cebu. I still owe him a visit to MacMem. But I have always considered Gen. MacArthur as the greatest American General the US ever had and the General’s words when he was fired still echo in my ears. This is what MacArthur said.

“I asked for the bridges across the Yaloo to be bombed, my request was denied, I asked for permission to pursue the enemy into their sanctuaries, that request was denied. I requested that we be allowed to bomb the war supporting factories in China, that request was denied! Do you know what they told me? They told me, that.. "You may bomb the Southern half of the bridge only! In all military history, no commander has ever received such an imbecilic order! In all my years of military experience I have never been taught how to bomb half a bridge!

This isn’t war, it’s half war! It is an immoral compromise with evil! The longer we continue this half hearted struggle, the more men we’ll lose!” Gen. MacArthur was very right when he said these words about military leaders who give their allegiance to political Presidents, that care nothing for their country, but more for their personal or political gain. Gen. MacArthur then said these famous words, “That is a dangerous concept, that men of the Armed Forces owe their primary duty to these temporary occupants of the White House instead of the Country and the Constitution we are sworn to defend!”

Four years ago, I went to Hiroshima with my sister Adela Kono and her husband Yuki Kono and looking at the Gembaku Dome and the Hiroshima museum is more than enough for one to realize the horrors of nuclear holocaust. Exactly a year ago, just a few months before my kidney transplant operation, I visited the City of Nagasaki… while it has already been rebuilt, it is enough for anyone to say to himself… never again should nuclear bombs be used against innocent people.

But have the nations of the world learned the lessons of Hiroshima and Nagasaki? The Korean War began in June 1950 and after three bloody years of fighting a bitter war; an Armistice was signed by the United States, the People’s Republic of China, North and South Korea. Six decades later North Korea now has nuclear weapons and is not hiding its nuclear capability. I was writing this piece, the United Nations (UN) Security Council just slapped another round of economic sanctions against North Korea. But do you think those UN sanctions would scare Kim Jong-un? This fellow lives in the lap of luxury while his brainwashed people starve due to the economic sanctions that the UN has slapped their country.

Last Wednesday, no less than Pres. Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte called Kim Jong-un a “Fool” and a son of a “w…re!” He said that Kim Jong-un was playing with “dangerous toys” and he should be stopped! If you ask me, the UN should do more than just slap North Korea with sanctions that has never worked… nor scared the North Korean leader…but only caused more suffering for the people of North Korea.

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