(promoted from the diaries)

Today, Trump made the statement that any further threats by North Korea on the US would result in “fire and fury.” This was rightly a big news story. Shortly after the statements, news broke that North Korea had threatened Guam. This was quickly framed as proof that Trump’s reckless comments had provoked the DPRK into a possible military response. This of course ignores the fact that North Korea needs no provocation and that they’ve been threatening the US mainland for years. Just a few days ago, they said their response to the new UN sanctions would be “one-thousand fold.”

But I digress. It is understandable that one would look at these two events and attempt to connect them. I get it. The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and CNN (among others) all attempted to connect the new statement with Trump’s comments.

There’s just one problem with this analysis though. It’s not true.

For some reason our US media chose to not provide the full statement, nor the context of what the KPA (Korean People’s Army) commander was actually referring to in his press release. In fact, I had to go to the foreign “KCNA Watch,” a site that monitors North Korean media, to finally get my hands on the full statement. No US source provided it.

Once you read it, the full context and the motivations become clearer.

Pyongyang, August 9 (KCNA) — A spokesman for the Strategic Force of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) released the following statement on August 8:

Recently, the U.S. test-fired ICBM Minuteman-3 at its Vandenberg Air Force Base in California State targeting the DPRK, the fourth one this year, openly staged an actual nuclear strike drill targeting the strategic objects of the DPRK by mobilizing its nuclear strategic bombers formation stationed at its Anderson Air Force Base on Guam in the Pacific. It is driving the regional situation to an extreme pitch by bringing various kinds of nuclear strategic hardware before the very eyes of the DPRK. The Strategic Force of the KPA has taken special note of such maneuvers.

Such military maneuvers of the U.S. may provoke a dangerous conflict under the present extremely acute situation prevailing on the Korean peninsula.

The US recently test fired ICBM’s in California. The DRPK sees this as a threat along with our military hardware on Guam. That is what provoked the response from North Korea, not Trump’s statement. After that, the release continues with the parts that have been quoted today by the US press.

In the morning of August 8 the air pirates of Guam again appeared in the sky above south Korea to stage a mad-cap drill simulating an actual war.

Supreme Commander of the revolutionary forces of the DPRK Kim Jong Un, estimating the nature of the military action taken by the U.S. forces in the Asia-Pacific region, once recommended examination of a powerful and effective action plan for containing the U.S. imperialists’ aggression hardware as the U.S. forces are resorting to inappropriate and reckless military actions in the sensitive area, while going on the rampage in the waters off the Korean peninsula and the Pacific waters.

The KPA Strategic Force is now carefully examining the operational plan for making an enveloping fire at the areas around Guam with medium-to-long-range strategic ballistic rocket Hwasong-12 in order to contain the U.S. major military bases on Guam including the Anderson Air Force Base in which the U.S. strategic bombers, which get on the nerves of the DPRK and threaten and blackmail it through their frequent visits to the sky above south Korea, are stationed and to send a serious warning signal to the U.S.

While Trump’s comments are not wise if he does not intend to back them up, they had nothing to do with North Korea’s latest threat on Guam. There’s enough to criticize Trump over without blaming him for things that didn’t happen. In fact, threatning Guam is not a new thing for the Kim regime.

War may be coming with North Korea. It’s looking less and less avoidable. I hope we can put aside the partisan rancor if an attack is necessary. North Korea is not Trump’s fault. It’s not Obama’s fault. This regime has been defying civilization, pursuing nuclear weapons, and starving it’s citizens for decades. They are at fault for their own actions and the US has done it’s level best to try to dance a fine line in response.

Now, with the reports that the DPRK have obtained ICBMs with nuclear tips, the time for diplomacy may be over. The fact that it’s happening now and not 12 months ago is simply a result of North Korea’s pace of development. This was always going to happen. It was just a question of who’d be in office at the time.