North Korea’s Nuclear Test

Stephen Gowans

There were immediate reasons, and more distant causes, that compelled north Korea to undertake a nuclear test earlier this month. All of them, I think, are related to the need of north Korea to deter the United States from carrying out its threats of war. According to the DPRK foreign ministry, the test was conducted to protect north Korea’s "sovereignty and right to existence from the daily increasing danger of war from the United States." Washington says it has no intention of attacking or invading north Korea, so north Korea’s claim that it is simply reacting to US threats and intimidation is dismissed as pure paranoia, but anyone who claims north Korea isn’t being threatened either isn’t paying attention or is playing at propaganda...

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