North Korea Case Analysis

Mark Bowden attempts to answer whether there is a clear way of dealing with North Korea in his article. He begins by discussing North Korea’s advances in their nuclear warfare program and how it has impacted the United States. In the past the United States has tried to control North Korea by threatening them as well as relying on China to intervene when tensions arise, and committing cyber sabotage. Due to North Korea paying little to no attention to these warnings, the United States is being pushed to closely analyze their options. Bowden suggests that in this case the options the United States is left with are prevention, turning the screws, decapitation, or acceptance. If the United States wanted to prevent the success of North Korea’s nuclear warfare program they would have to destroy Pyongyang’s weapons of mass destruction as well their military and take out its leadership. …show more content…
Turning the screws is also an option assessed by Bowden. In this case the United States would attack North Korea, but with limited force. The primary targets in this case would be special forces operations being conducted by North Korea. Kim Jong Un would remain in power, however, he’d be forced to abandon his goal of developing nuclear missiles. A consequence to this option would be that Pyongyang may view this as a full attack leading to an all-out response of retaliation. Decapitation as an option would aim to remove Kim Jong Un from power most likely via