Advertisement
North Korea nuclear crisis
Asia
Irvin Studin
Irvin Studin

Asian Angle | It’s no joke: the North Korean nuclear crisis could get Trump the Nobel Peace Prize

The US president’s unpredictability has pushed the peninsula to the brink of nuclear war, but it’s that same caprice that could save us all from Armageddon

Reading Time:5 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un are known for their mercurial natures – which may help the nuclear crisis. Photo: AFP
Irvin Studin
The presidency of  Donald Trump has made the dividing line between nuclear war and a Nobel Peace Prize increasingly thin. The very same extreme caprice and disregard for precedent that have amplified the military pressure and posturing on the Korean peninsula over the past year can quickly transform the logic of the endgame to one of spectacular peace and reconciliation.
Advertisement

To be clear, if the thinking in Washington today no longer excludes the idea of pre-emptive and, by likely implication, nuclear war with North Korea, then the prospect of near-term escalation in the domestic crisis surrounding the White House could soon yield to a “consolidation action” – in military form – by Trump that launches Asia and the world into a massive war. 

South Koreans read Trump’s infamous tweet about his bigger nuclear button. Photo: AP
South Koreans read Trump’s infamous tweet about his bigger nuclear button. Photo: AP
The recent indictments by special counsel Robert Mueller, the great likelihood of further indictments, and the approaching midterm congressional elections in which the Republicans could lose control of the House of Representatives, together suggest that the presidency may reach peak crisis mode later this year. This ramp-up coincides with American intelligence estimates suggesting that the coming months are apparently “decision time” to stop or reverse the technical progress of North Korea’s nuclear programme.

Trump’s big button to Thai penis whitening: hail the emperor, without his clothes

There are three crucial points that may be underappreciated in the present rhetorical and ideational hysteria that have led to this strange prologue to tragedy. First, from a North American perspective, war in general, and nuclear war in particular, continue to seem very “far” – a function of geographical good fortune that surely explains some of the American levity and obliviousness to proportionality in deliberating how and when to launch a war on another continent. 

Watch: China prepares for a potential crisis in North Korea

Advertisement