Pyongyang’s latest military parade is another reminder of the dangers that have grown under this administration
The 2020 Commission Report is – thank God – fiction. But it is an alarmingly plausible account of a North Korean nuclear strike on America, presented as the findings of a US government investigation. Its author, an arms control expert, makes the catalyst a rogue tweet from Donald Trump. Even in a novel, the North is not suicidal enough to choose an attack; the danger comes from mistakes and miscalculations.
The story’s broader truth is twofold: that the risk of something going wrong grows as weapons proliferate, and that, despite the show business of his summits, the threat from Pyongyang has grown thanks to President Trump. At the weekend, North Korea presented its largest ever display of new weaponry at a military parade celebrating the 75th anniversary of the ruling Workers’ party. It included an intercontinental ballistic missile described by one expert as a monster – possibly the world’s largest road-mobile ICBM, albeit one that is yet to be tested – and additional missile transporters.