Tomorrow is the 2025 Doomsday Clock announcement. According to a release by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, “On January 28th, the Bulletin‘s Science and Security Board (SASB) will reveal the 2025 Doomsday Clock time in Washington, DC. For 2025, the SASB will consider multiple global threats in the Clock setting, including the proliferation of nuclear weapons, disruptive technologies like artificial intelligence, the Russia-Ukraine war, Israel-Hamas war, Israel-Hezbollah conflict, bio-threats and the continued climate crisis.” Last I looked the Doomsday Clock was at one hundred seconds to midnight. What will it be tomorrow, 15 minutes after?
Going along with this, two experts, one in Internatonal Security and a nuclear scientist who was the Director of the Los Alamos National Laboatory, Robert L. Carlin and Siegfried S. Hecker, respectively, sat down and penned a letter to Donald Trump — in the persona of Kim Jong Un. Here is what they imagine Kim would say to Trump.
January 20, 2025
Dear Mr. President:
I write to you after a long silence. Much has happened over the years since we last met, and it will be good to explore what that means before we consider whether it is useful to begin anew serious contact. I know you will agree that if we are to engage with any hope of fruitful results, this will have to start from an entirely new place. The past is past. Let us not be burdened by it but look ahead.
To be frank, the chasm between our countries has widened and deepened. I fear there is nothing to be done to bridge the gap anymore. If you think otherwise, I will of course listen to your views.
Let me lay out what I see.
For a long time, we in the DPRK knew the world to be a dangerous place, with untrustworthy neighbors prepared to squeeze us to death. In such a situation, the logical course was to pursue relations with the United States which, at the time of the collapse of the USSR and the Eastern bloc, was the preeminent force on the world stage.
We are a practical people; we see reality for what it is. What we see today and what we saw then are worlds apart. The United States is no longer preeminent. And after so many years of effort, in which we sacrificed much and compromised often, we have become convinced those years were wasted. The United States thought we were gullible, that we would sacrifice our honor for a handful of candy, and that once weakened it could smash us apart, wipe us off the face of the earth as it has done time after time to other countries. But we did not yield. And we will not. Though it would cost us dearly, we are prepared for an inevitable, final struggle. I hope it will not come to that, but we will not turn away if it does.
You will note that I have declared the DPRK a separate, sovereign state totally apart from the ROK. This was a painful decision but not as strange as it might first seem. Although we are one people, for centuries we were divided into separate kingdoms. Eventually, the strongest of them conquered the others. I’m sure recent events in South Korea have been very troubling to you.
To speak honestly about our previous exchange of correspondence, it accomplished little. Though they contained serious ideas, my letters were mocked and belittled in your media. One message I sought to reinforce to you over and over was that I cannot simply give, give, give. I must have something concrete to show my people. You must as well. On that basis, we should have been able to make progress. It did not come to pass. There were consequences from failure. We have formed a strategic alliance with Russia, and we are much stronger today in every respect than we were then. And we will become stronger still, of that you can be assured.
To be clear, we are both the leaders of nuclear-weapons states. We are not friends, though we can respect each other and, perhaps, work together to solve pressing regional and global problems. I give you fair warning—we cannot be brow beaten; we are not dogs who can be trained to heel. As you treat us, so we will treat you.
I look forward to your views.
And in this hypothetical, Kim doesn’t sign it, “Love, Jong” although according to Trump they have exchanged many “love letters.” So you have a keen mind in North Korea and a childish buffoon in Washington, and the Doomsday Clock is a tickin’ away the remaining seconds.
This is as good a time as any to stream Dr. Strangelove and try not to worry. Maybe the reality TV actor will blow up the world and spend the rest of his natural life in a bomb shelter with Melania and Barron — until she claws his eyes out with her acylics — while you and I vaporize and our surroundings glow blue in the dark.
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