{"id":7073901,"date":"2026-10-03T05:53:16","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T05:53:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7073901"},"modified":"2026-10-03T05:53:16","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T05:53:16","slug":"is-north-korea-chinas-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7073901","title":{"rendered":"Is North Korea China\u2019s Israel?"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

Over the New Year\u2019s break, North Korea\u2019s military test-fired<\/a> some short-range (350-400 kilometer) ballistic missiles, while the country\u2019s news agency reported that it was testing a new 600 mm multiple rocket launcher system capable of carrying nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, the often erratic-seeming North Korean leader Kim Jong-un expressed his commitment, \u201cto respond with nuke for nuke and an all-out confrontation for an all-out confrontation.\u201d He said he had ordered more powerful weapons to \u201cabsolutely overwhelm the U.S. imperialist aggressive forces and their puppet army.\u201d<\/p>\n

But actually, just how erratic is Kim? His recent actions and comments came in the context of South Korea having undertaken unprecedentedly broad joint exercises with the U.S. military, in and around its terrain. And yesterday, the press secretary of South Korean President Yoon Yoon Suk-yeol said<\/a> that, \u201cIn order to respond to the North Korean nuclear weapons, the two countries [South Korea and the United States] are discussing ways to share information on the operation of U.S.-owned nuclear assets, and joint planning and execution of them accordingly.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

(Senior U.S. defense officials tried to walk back or downplay that announcement.)<\/p>\n

Pres. Yoon is a new, and potentially destabilizing, factor in the long-tangled geopolitics of the Korean Peninsula. He is a political and social conservative who came to power last May at the end of the five-year term of Pres. Moon Jae-in. Moon was much more of a reformer, domestically and in intra-Korean affairs. When he was in office he pioneered steps<\/a> to reach out to the North and work toward peaceful reunification, which were widely supported by the South Korean public. In 2018, he held two meetings with Kim Jong-un, one of them in the northern capital, Pyongyang. (Much of his outreach to Kim was paralleled by Pres. Donald Trump\u2019s similar efforts, though there is little or no evidence that their moves were coordinated.)<\/p>\n

By contrast, Pres. Yoon is much more hawkishly anti-North (as well as more socially conservative.) One of his first acts<\/a> as president was to move his office to the Ministry of National Defense, and one of his foreign trips was to NATO\u2019s Madrid Summit in June.<\/p>\n

I started out responding to the latest news from Seoul by idly wondering whether Yoon\u2019s relationship with Washington could be characterized as similar to Israel\u2019s. But pretty soon I thought a more productive comparison would be between Kim\u2019s relationship with China* and Israel\u2019s with the United States.<\/em> <\/p>\n

There are many evident differences between these two cases, I know. But at the level of nuclear-weapons geopolitics, the parallels are striking. <\/p>\n

In both cases, the smaller party in the relationship\u2014which has received massive amounts of help from the larger party over the course of many decades\u2014initially developed its independent nuclear arsenal with the stated goal of \u201cdeterring\u201d or fending off its local adversaries\u2026 But then, the smaller state discovered that its command of a nuclear triggering capability gave it not just considerable freedom of action to buck the preferences of its larger-state backer but also considerable power to compel it to accede to the smaller state\u2019s actions.<\/em> That is, effectively, the power to blackmail the larger state into compliance. (For more info on the Israel case, see here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Or maybe the chronology I implied there is not accurate. Maybe the smaller state\u2019s discovery of the triggering-cum-blackmailing aspect of having a wholly-owned nuclear arsenal did not occur subsequent to the development of the nukes<\/em> but was part of the plan all along? Who knows?<\/p>\n

But that is a minor issue. The big issue is that these two small states, North Korea and Israel, are able to defy the wishes of every other country in the world, including their superpower backers, because they are able to use nuclear blackmail.<\/em> <\/p>\n

This immediately raises two related questions:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. If these states\u2019 respective large-power backers did not also have (and face a threat from) very large, indeed, quite plausibly omnicidal, nuclear arsenals, then the \u201ctriggering\u201d potential of the small states\u2019 arsenals would be much less scary\/threatening. The blackmailing effect of the small states\u2019 arsenals is nearly wholly a function of the existence of the broader nuclear-terror regime at the global level.<\/li>\n
  2. If one of the key effects of these smaller states\u2019 possession of nuclear weapons has been to allow them to continue to defy world opinion and international law in a broad range of different ways, then what can we say about the effects of the possession of much larger and more deadly nuclear arsenals by the world\u2019s much bigger powers?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    All of which underlines the urgency of redoubling our efforts to dismantle all the world\u2019s nuclear arsenals.<\/em> The existence of these arsenals places all of humanity on a precarious hair-trigger for the quite possibly total extinction of our species. But it has also, in West Asia, in the Korean Peninsula, and elsewhere, kept frozen in place very damaging conflicts that continue until today to blight the lives of millions\u2014though these conflicts should and could have been resolved through energetic and rights-respecting negotiations many decades ago.<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/figure>\n
      \n
    • Footnote: I should note that for many years China was not the only substantial large-state backer of North Korea. Back in the day, the Soviet Union also was. Russia has a small direct border with North Korea and is anyway a significant factor in the complex nuclear-weapons balance in East Asia.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Over the New Year\u2019s break, North Korea\u2019s military test-fired some short-range (350-400 kilometer) ballistic missiles, while the country\u2019s news agency reported that it was testing a new 600 mm multiple rocket launcher system capable of carrying nuclear weapons. On Saturday, the often erratic-seeming North Korean leader Kim Jong-un expressed his commitment, \u201cto respond with nuke […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7073902,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[111136,118584,118585,234643,234644],"tags":[26301,16978,4660,843],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-7073901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-china","category-current-affairs","category-global-balance","category-israeli-nuclear","category-nuclear-realities","tag-chinas","tag-israel","tag-korea","tag-north"],"yoast_head":"\nIs North Korea China\u2019s Israel? - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7073901\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is North Korea China\u2019s Israel? - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Over the New Year\u2019s break, North Korea\u2019s military test-fired some short-range (350-400 kilometer) ballistic missiles, while the country\u2019s news agency reported that it was testing a new 600 mm multiple rocket launcher system capable of carrying nuclear weapons. On Saturday, the often erratic-seeming North Korean leader Kim Jong-un expressed his commitment, \u201cto respond with nuke […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7073901\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-10-03T05:53:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/cats-movie-2019.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7073901#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7073901\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371\"},\"headline\":\"Is North Korea China\u2019s Israel?\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-10-03T05:53:16+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7073901\"},\"wordCount\":912,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7073901#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Nuclear-arsenals-2022-Statista.jpeg\",\"keywords\":[\"Chinas\",\"Israel\",\"korea\",\"North\"],\"articleSection\":[\"China\",\"Current Affairs\",\"Global balance\",\"Israeli nuclear\",\"Nuclear realities\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7073901#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7073901\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7073901\",\"name\":\"Is North Korea China\u2019s Israel? - Som2ny Network\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7073901#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7073901#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Nuclear-arsenals-2022-Statista.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-10-03T05:53:16+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7073901#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7073901\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7073901#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Nuclear-arsenals-2022-Statista.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Nuclear-arsenals-2022-Statista.jpeg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":1200},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7073901#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?bp_activities=1\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Is North Korea China\u2019s Israel?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/\",\"name\":\"Som2ny Network\",\"description\":\"Daily Deals\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Som2ny Network\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4a0953c4-logo-300x86-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4a0953c4-logo-300x86-1.png\",\"width\":300,\"height\":86,\"caption\":\"Som2ny Network\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/729ae85bf62b9917e93538db2f2688ca?s=96&r=g&default=https%3A%2F%2Ffivemor.com%2Fwp-content%2Fplugins%2Fbuddypress-first-letter-avatar%2Fimages%2Fdefault%2F96%2Flatin_a.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/729ae85bf62b9917e93538db2f2688ca?s=96&r=g&default=https%3A%2F%2Ffivemor.com%2Fwp-content%2Fplugins%2Fbuddypress-first-letter-avatar%2Fimages%2Fdefault%2F96%2Flatin_a.png\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Is North Korea China\u2019s Israel? - Som2ny Network","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7073901","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Is North Korea China\u2019s Israel? - Som2ny Network","og_description":"Over the New Year\u2019s break, North Korea\u2019s military test-fired some short-range (350-400 kilometer) ballistic missiles, while the country\u2019s news agency reported that it was testing a new 600 mm multiple rocket launcher system capable of carrying nuclear weapons. On Saturday, the often erratic-seeming North Korean leader Kim Jong-un expressed his commitment, \u201cto respond with nuke […]","og_url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7073901","og_site_name":"Som2ny Network","article_published_time":"2026-10-03T05:53:16+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":675,"url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/cats-movie-2019.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7073901#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7073901"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371"},"headline":"Is North Korea China\u2019s Israel?","datePublished":"2026-10-03T05:53:16+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7073901"},"wordCount":912,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7073901#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Nuclear-arsenals-2022-Statista.jpeg","keywords":["Chinas","Israel","korea","North"],"articleSection":["China","Current Affairs","Global balance","Israeli nuclear","Nuclear realities"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7073901#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7073901","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7073901","name":"Is North Korea China\u2019s Israel? - Som2ny Network","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7073901#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7073901#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Nuclear-arsenals-2022-Statista.jpeg","datePublished":"2026-10-03T05:53:16+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7073901#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7073901"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7073901#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Nuclear-arsenals-2022-Statista.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Nuclear-arsenals-2022-Statista.jpeg","width":1200,"height":1200},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7073901#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?bp_activities=1"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Is North Korea China\u2019s Israel?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/","name":"Som2ny Network","description":"Daily Deals","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization","name":"Som2ny Network","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4a0953c4-logo-300x86-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/4a0953c4-logo-300x86-1.png","width":300,"height":86,"caption":"Som2ny Network"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/729ae85bf62b9917e93538db2f2688ca?s=96&r=g&default=https%3A%2F%2Ffivemor.com%2Fwp-content%2Fplugins%2Fbuddypress-first-letter-avatar%2Fimages%2Fdefault%2F96%2Flatin_a.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/729ae85bf62b9917e93538db2f2688ca?s=96&r=g&default=https%3A%2F%2Ffivemor.com%2Fwp-content%2Fplugins%2Fbuddypress-first-letter-avatar%2Fimages%2Fdefault%2F96%2Flatin_a.png","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/fivemor.com"],"url":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7073901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7073901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7073901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7073902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7073901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7073901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7073901"},{"taxonomy":"dealstore","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fdealstore&post=7073901"},{"taxonomy":"offerexpiration","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fofferexpiration&post=7073901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}