The world had turned its back on North Korea in order to make sure the Cold War never got hot. Now, the world is starting to notice the tiny peninsula; and it doesn’t like what it sees.

North Korea: Its territory is small, its motives are mysterious, and its leader continues to threaten the entire world. It may seem a wonder as to how something so small could possibly stand up to the whole world, but then again, such is the power of a nuclear arsenal. The United States, and moreover the world, must stand firm in its diplomacy first and foremost with its capability to wage war second in order to avoid the deaths of millions of innocents from a war with North Korea.

After all, if the United States and the European Union (EU) were able to unite and take a firm stance to prevent a nuclear war with the Soviet Union, why then, is it so hard for our President to handle the lives of Americans with greater regard for diplomacy?

The HWASONG-14 is North Korea’s newest Inter Continental Ballistic Missile (ICBM), a nuclear missile capable of striking the U.S.’s territories in the Pacific Ocean, and Alaska.

While it’s not yet capable of striking the East Coast (home to the U.S.’s Washington D.C. mind you), North Korea will stop at nothing to reach this goal. It’s not a question of if North Korea will decide to reign nuclear armageddon upon the States, it’s a question of when.

President Trump’s efforts to quell North Korea with threats of “fire, fury, and frankly power” have only made things worse. Recently, North Korea refused any diplomacy with the United States until it finishes its development of their ICBM.

With a nuclear arsenal capable of striking the East Coast, North Korea will have evened the odds against the U.S. – it’s a clear message: If you fire at us, we will fire back.

President Trump has made it blatantly clear to avoid the failed attempts of previous U.S. presidents at making peace with North Korea. And while I do applaud him for trying something outside of shaking hands with a tyrant *coff, coff, Vladimir Putin*, I think Trump is misguided. He’s giving North Korea the fuel they need to pour over their brainwashed populace to hate the U.S. even more.

The entire existence of North Korea rests on its nuclear arsenal, and Trump is giving them all the more reason to continue hating the U.S. if I were a brainwashed North Korean citizen, having grown up under a regime which tells me that the outside world is trying to destroy me and my home, I would feel pretty safe knowing that my government has a means of retaliation.

Perhaps when describing North Korea’s “hate” towards the States, this is an understatement. The people of North Korea would, frankly, love to see nothing more than a massive crater where the U.S. exists.

But North Korea wasn’t always this way. This is because North Korea’s previous leader, Kim-Jong-Il, instituted a policy of national brainwashing, wherein the government would promote propaganda designed to have the impoverished people of North Korea to center their sicknesses and low socioeconomic status on the United States instead of the very government which oppressed them.

While the Soviet Union had ordered the policy of “de-stalinization” for the nation to destroy any and all representations of the dictator Joseph Stalin, the North Koreans have had no such policy. The Kim regime is still going strong, and with their propaganda having the people of North Korea both love the regime and hate the U.S., this has no sign of stopping the Kim’s from loosening control over North Korea.

If the United States were to go to war with North Korea, it would mean a total destruction of North Korean culture, leaving a power gap for some other fascist regime to take hold of a nation ravaged by either nuclear fire, or a devastating land war. We’ve seen it in the Middle East with Radical Islamic groups dominating the region after the blundering U.S.’s disregard for the people of the lands with which we eliminate the authoritarian leadership – leaving an even more dangerous threat to emerge.

We’ve seen it in France after the end of the French monarchy, with Napoleon Bonaparte assuming the role of dictator, plunging Europe into chaos with the Napoleonic Wars. We’ve seen it in Germany after the fall of the German economy after World War I had crippled the nation, and because the world was unable or unwilling to do anything to help, Adolf Hitler fueled the German people’s hate by directing it outwards against the world.. We will see it again in North Korea should the world continue to disregard this fundamental concept within human history.

North Korea is a ticking time bomb that needs to be dealt with via diplomacy first and military action second.