South East Asia is a forgotten hot spot of foreign policy and globalization. But it’s very relevant. As every nearly nation is in our modern world. We should give credit where credit is due; Trump has been ringing bells to North Korea in most debates. It’s true. We have a nation who is an outsider, oppressive and says they’ll destroy us with a nuclear bomb. Last night, while at a National’s baseball game my phone lit up. I was startled to see seismic activity reported near the North Korea. My immediate thought was that if we go to war, I should re-enlist. Because a nuclear threat from an unspooled irresponsible state actor is the ultimate threat to the nation.

Notoriously we in the West have a short attention span. Social media, immediate gratification of mobile internet searches, Wikipedia, tweets, you name it – they don’t take very long. But the cultural of the far east embraces a more cyclical view of life. Things occur at a different space. They’re different. I don’t know how exactly. I’m not an expert. But I do know that these nations and the people of the region have fought battles and waged wars against one another like everyone else. But they haven’t recently.

This latest test by North Korea – most believe it large, ten kilotons large. According to 3 am Magazine a 10-20 kiloton nuclear bomb would have significant radioactive fallout and likely take a city. Globalsecurity.com predicts a weapon of that size would cost hundreds of billions of dollars in damage and displace 450,000 people with a radius up to one mile.

North Korea released a statement afterwards. It essentially said that we’d witnessed the will of the North Korean people to defend themselves if attacked. Their statement even made reference to mounting nuclear warheads on missiles.

“The nuclear warhead explosion test is a demonstration of the toughest will of the W.P.K. and the Korean people to get themselves always ready to retaliate against the enemies if they make provocation, as it is part of practical countermeasures to the racket of threat and sanctions against the D.P.R.K. kicked up by the U.S.-led hostile forces who have gone desperate in their moves to find fault with the sovereign state’s exercise of the right to self-defense while categorically denying the D.P.R.K.’s strategic position as a full-fledged nuclear weapons state.”

If they’re willing to make it public, they might be willing to use it tactically if provoked. This could be a blatant sign that their arsenal is larger and more advanced than we think. Little is known about North Korea. It’s difficult to gauge what life is like there when a subject matter expert could be Dennis Rodman.

The North Korean statement didn’t stop there.

“The D.P.R.K. will take further measures to bolster the state nuclear force in quality and quantity for safeguarding its dignity and right to existence and genuine peace from the U.S. increasing threat of a nuclear war.”

The U.S. is the primary villain in whatever alternate reality they’re living in North Korea. They’ve told us that they’ve tested the bomb that will be the standard in their defense apparatus. We also know that they possess long-range missiles. We’ve long been the target of a nuclear attack. Remember this strange video reminiscent of the works of David Lynch (except they’re serious, it’s not art).

North Korean propaganda video

The video is bizarre and probably is so to everyone in the U.S. We do not fully understand the mentality and the capability. This elevator music video showing a missile attack destroying the U.S. is an overt threat. We know that they might be able to pull it off. This is beyond saber rattling. Isolation and sanctions could backfire and provoke an outburst.

This latest nuclear test wasn’t political but proves a technical desire of North Korea to get it right. Instead of the usual cyclical threats rolling over in our media and consciousness – we should try, amid a litany of threats – to consider the possibility of this real and present danger.

Featured image courtesy of foreignpolicy.com.