Welcome to the first edition of On the Nation’s DIME, an acronym the government uses for describing elements of national power. DIME stands for the elements of diplomatic, informational, military and economic power.
This week I’m thinking about recent events in North Korea…
In the Diplomatic realm:
I’ve asked myself what is the diplomatic and political end state from a war with North Korea: Regime change to remove Kim Jong Un and his henchmen or removing all capability of threatening his neighbors. Here is a good article from 38 North, written by Richard Sokolsky and Aaron David Miller of the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies.
In the Informational arena,
Evan Osnos took a trip to North Korea for The New Yorker magazine. In his article The Risk of Nuclear War with North Korea, he speaks about the ongoing war of words between Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump. Evan relates some interesting details about what he saw and how North Koreans view the war of words between the two leaders.
There’s a lot in the Military realm-
On the morning of 30 November 2017, at 2:47 am local time, North Korea’s Missile Guidance Bureau overseeing their missile forces launched another ballistic missile into the Sea of Japan. I have continued to ask when will the US Navy or Japan shoot down one of Rocket Man’s ballistic missiles? I know it can be done because I’ve toured several AEGIS Cruisers and Destroyers and talked to them about ballistic missile defense.
I listened to the crew of the USS Lake Erie, a Navy AEGIS Cruiser, assigned to destroy an NRO satellite coming out of earth orbit and impacting Australia. If you want to see how we blew an errant satellite out of the sky, called Operation Operation Burnt Frost, go look at the video of the intercept…
In the Economic area-
Reconstructing Iraq after the invasion proved a huge task. Entire provinces of North Korea are without common infrastructure we rely on here in the US and South Korea. The recent defecting soldier has numerous health issues. What would be the cost of war with North Korea?
— Final note, please let me know your feedback and suggestions on Twitter, your thought on this weeks DIME, and what do you want more or less of? Let me know by sending a tweet to @MarkHasara and put #nationsdime in the header.