U.S. War With North Korea: Top Conspiracy Theories

This undated picture released by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on April 26, 2017 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (C) attending the combined fire demonstration of the services of the Korean People’s Army in celebration of its 85th founding anniversary at the airport on the eastern front. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)

Today, President Donald Trump said he’d meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “under the right circumstances,” but rising tensions with the dictator’s nuclear ambitions have senators and conspiracists weary of war. Speaking to Bloomberg News, Trump said on Monday, “If it would be appropriate for me to meet with [Un], I would absolutely, I would be honored to do it… If it’s under the, again, under the right circumstances. But I would do that.”

The statement came at the same time that CIA Director Mike Pompeo was visiting U.S. ally South Korea “for meetings with the head of South Korea’s National Intelligence Service and high-level officials in the presidential office,” writes Time. Around the same time, Arizona Republican Senator John McCain said that Trump should “consider a preemptive strike on North Korea if the country is able to deliver a nuclear weapon by ballistic missile, but only as a final option,” reports CNN. Fox News reports today that North Korea said that it will ramp up and strengthen its nuclear force “to the maximum.”

The U.S. has repeatedly warned Pyongyang that it will not tolerate any more nuclear arsenal tests. Last week, an American aircraft carrier group carried out drills with South Korea in the event of war breaking out. The division of Korea between North and South Korea occurred after the Allied victory in World War II in 1945, which ended the Empire of Japan’s 35-year rule of Korea. The United States supported the Republic of Korea in South Korea, while the Soviet Union supported the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in North Korea. Each government claimed sovereignty over the whole Korean peninsula. The area has been an area of tension ever since, with the Korean War (1950–1953) leaving the two countries separated by the Korean Demilitarized Zone.

But what would be the purpose of getting U.S. troops involved in the Korean conflict beyond the touted threat of North Korea’s ballistic missile tests, which “are banned by the United Nations because they are seen as part of the North’s push for a nuclear-tipped weapon that can hit the U.S. mainland,” reports Time. Conspiracists on Reddit have some ideas.

A person in Seoul on June 23, 2016 points to a computer screen page of the North Korean newspaper Rodong Sinmun displaying news of North Korea’s Musudan missile test the day before. North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has hailed the successful test of a powerful new medium-range missile, saying it poses a direct threat to U.S. military bases in the Pacific. (JUNG YEON-JE/AFP/Getty Images)

One common storyline of how North Korea could carry out a nuclear attack on the U.S. is by the use of a nuclear-armed satellite. The Washington Examiner reports, “A former NASA mission controller and space expert is raising new concerns that North Korea’s missile program is aimed at launching a nuclear armed satellite at the U.S. where high-sky explosion would fry Washington and melt down the Mid-Atlantic electric grid, resulting in chaos and death.”

However, as Redditor sourwood writes, “If they are having trouble getting a conventional rocket off the ground they don’t have nukes in the atmosphere. And if they did we would shoot them down.” WeAreTheResistance adds, “This is bull shit fear porn.” So what could be the purpose of this “fear porn?”

As McCain said above, to justify a preemptive attack.

The real reason Redditor liverpoolwin believes North Korea is now being targeted is that Israel suspects North Korea’s nuclear program is a “clandestine extension of Iran’s nuclear program.” liverpoolwin cites a recent Jerusalem Post story as his reasoning, writing:

The US wouldn’t particularly care about North Korea having nukes if North Korea wasn’t allied with Iran. North Korea is being targeted as Israel/US suspect that the North Korean nuclear program is a ‘clandestine extension of Iran’s nuclear program’. Iran is a country on the Western hit-list, as are Syria and Lebanon, the plan is to eventually put Western puppet leaders in all of those countries and also grab land to extend Israel. This is why they are desperate not to allow the countries around Israel to get nukes, as then they can defend themselves against the coming planned ‘regime changes’. Remember what happened to Gaddafi after he agreed to give up Libya’s nuclear weapons program, Libya got ‘regime changed’ anyway, with Gaddafi brutally murdered, the nukes would have been a good defense against all that. This shows to Iran and NK that they both have no choice but to try to get some nukes, as they know what is coming if they don’t. Though if North Korea has no relations with Iran, the US/Israel wouldn’t be particularly concerned with NK and would mostly leave them alone.

A few examples from the Jerusalem Post article read:

Yet, by possibly serving as an outsourced, clandestine extension of Iran’s nuclear program, by openly cooperating with Iran on various initiatives and by making Iran look less crazy and the US look less strong, North Korea could render the Iranian threat to Israel far more serious.

Hard evidence of how deep the Iran-North Korea nuclear relationship goes is scarce, but experts have been finding Iran-North Korea connections for years.

Redditor HenryCurtmantle adds that North Korea does not currently have a IMF/Rothschild Central Bank, which was part of the conspiracy theories behind Trump’s original “Muslim ban.” Mayer Amschel Rothschild, considered the “founding father of finance,” was a German Jewish banker and the founder of the Rothschild “banking dynasty.” Conspiracy theorists claim that the dynasty owns these banks. His legacy is often cited as justification for anti-Semitism.

Noticeably absent from alleged Rothschild control on the list is North Korea, Russia, and Syria. However, the Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran IS on the list. Whether that detracts from the Iran-North Korea narrative is up to interpretation.

(L-R) South Korean presidential candidates Moon Jae-In of the Democratic Party of Korea, Sim Sang-Jung of the Justice Party, Yoo Seung-Min of the Bareun Party, Ahn Cheol-Soo of the People’s Party and Hong Joon-Pyo of the Liberty Korea Party pose with placards reading “Let’s vote” before a televised debate in Seoul on April 28, 2017.
South Korea will hold a presidential election on May 9. (JUNG YEON-JE/AFP/Getty Images)

Lastly, as Redditor coolnilk points out, South Korea is due to hold presidential elections on May 9. According to the Telegraph, “The snap poll on May 9 was called in March after the impeachment of former President Park Geun-hye over a corruption scandal that will see her imminently go to trial on extortion and bribery charges. The scandal left South Korea rudderless during one of the worst military crises to hit the Korean peninsula in decades.”

coolnilk writes, “For some reason, I have a feeling that we are going to get into a war with North Korea right before South Korea’s presidential election takes place (or maybe even that exact day). Some sort of false flag could take place from now till the 9th or if North Korea stages its 6th nuclear test which makes Trump use military action against them.”

As of now, it’s anyone’s guess.