North Korea. A small nation in a faraway locale, but one with a menacingly ever-increasing world presence. A nation born out of one war and into another, North Korea has had a very interesting history. At the end of the Second World War the Korean Peninsula was occupied by that war’s major winners, the Soviet Union and the United States. The Soviets occupied the north while the Americans were in the south. The task of choosing where to formally mark the boundaries of the two very different nations that would develop on the peninsula fell to the Americans. The 38th parallel was decided upon. This boundary was very much arbitrary, as no experts on Korean history were consulted, but it put the Korean capital of Seoul on the American side so it stayed.

The war that the nation was born into was a cold one. Tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States ran extremely high as the threat of nuclear holocaust loomed constantly over their heads. Parallels can be drawn to the situation we are facing with the DPRK today. A proxy war between the two superpowers was fought on the Korean peninsula, with Russia supplying funds and arms to the north while Americans supplied troops and support to the south. The war lasted three years and ended in an armistice, forever dividing the peninsula into the countries of North and South Korea as we know them today. Communism prospered under the Soviet and Chinese influence in the north, while capitalism and democracy were implanted by America in the south. Because the war never formally ended, only ending in a cease-fire, North Korea and the U.S. are still technically at war. The Hermit Kingdom has worked this fact into the mythos of their nation, almost if not as much as they have with the cult of Kim.

These are the roots of North Korea’s relationship with the free world. After the war, time moved on. America fought and lost in Vietnam, the Soviet Union collapsed, China emerged as a superpower, a global war on terror was initiated by the 9/11 attacks and still rages today in the face of the rise of ISIS. North Korea has not changed. There is no opportunity to change. It is nearly impossible for natives to leave the country and very difficult for foreigners to get in. All forms of media are state run and heavily censored. The U.S. has been painted as the eternal aggressor, constantly infringing on the nation’s sovereignty. With all this in mind, now add nuclear weapons and ICBMs into the mix, and this is the situation we find ourselves in today.

The Kim dynasty has ruled North Korea with an iron fist since its inception. Their current ruler is Kim Jong-Un, and for years he has been antagonistic towards the United States and its allies. Recently, the regime’s antagonisms have picked up. The ante has been raised as well as the rogue nation has developed nuclear weapons and long range delivery system. Our new president, Donald Trump, has taken the antagonisms head on. His “strong-man” leadership is exactly what the nation needs right now. When a bully starts to push, the only thing to do is push back harder. Past presidents have let Kim the bully push and push with little to no recourse. They’ve remained idle, hoping the threat will eventually go away. They were wrong. The threat has only gotten worse. This past summer alone North Korea has; shot at least five ballistic missiles into the ocean with two flying over our close ally Japan, tested multiple atomic weapons within their borders, threatened to attack the U.S. territory of Guam with a nuclear weapon, and has claimed they have developed an even more powerful hydrogen bomb.

The U.N. and the world community has repeatedly warned the tyrannical nation to end its war-mongering actions. Sanctions have been repeatedly imposed upon North Korea, recently even by its closest ally China. On September 11th of this year, the U.N. imposed the toughest ever sanctions on the rogue regime. Trump also announced new economic sanctions to be emplaced on the 21st. Besides sanctions and warnings, the president of the U.S. has used increasingly harsher language when talking about the DPRK. After Guam was threatened, Trump told the press that any aggression by North Korea would be met with “fire and fury” from the U.S. military. Even more recently, during his first speech to the U.N. General Assembly, Trump employed starker imagery to describe what would happen to North Korea. He said that the nation would be “totally destroyed” if the U.S. is forced to defend itself or its allies.

In the same speech to the U.N., he called out the leaders of the world for being too weak on global issues. He vowed to always put America first, and suggested that every other country should do the same. He called out Iran as a “murderous regime”, said that he would crush Islamic terror, and hold Maduro accountable for the Venezuelan crisis. In times like these, where the nation and the Free World is beseeched on all sides by threats of every sort, a strong leader is needed to lead its defense. I believe Donald Trump is that man.