America To Participate In Decapitation Practice

Let’s face it, some world leaders are thorns in the humanities side. There’s a cavalcade of responses that diplomats and world leaders could choose to use, but one, in particular, seems like an interesting approach. That is if you want to stir the pot.

People can celebrate. The United States is returning to joint exercises with South Korea. This one is not without controversy, however, as the exercises are to practice a “kill chain,” where soldiers will train for targeting North Korea’s missile and nuclear sites and the bases the North has for supplies, refueling, and rearming.

The exercises, called Ulchi Freedom Shield, are named after a seventh-century general who defeated Chinese invaders. They’ll begin later this month. U.S. Defense Secretary Austin and the South Korean Defense Minister, Lee Jong-sup, set the exercises for the first time since 2018 when Donald Trump canceled them after meeting Kim in Singapore during one of their meetings.

The idea of the “decapitation exercise” reportedly infuriates Kim, who according to analysts, is intimidated by the concept of the “kill chain.”

It was just last week when the North Korean leader, Kim, threatened the U.S., and South Korea said his country would be willing to use its nuclear arsenal against them. The U.S. and South Korea’s intelligence agencies have warned the world that North Korea may be preparing to conduct its first nuclear test since 2017.

Decapitation Doesn’t Sound Good

While the exercises are set for later this month, try imagining you’re Kim John Un. The North Korean leader has been called paranoid by the press and intelligence reports over the years. Some of his offenses against his people and his family have been believed to be fueled by paranoia.

“Want to know what is more destructive than bombs? Words.”

— Kim John Un

What might you be thinking if you were the leader of North Korea? In a world where optics are almost everything, you’d likely feel threatened, even scared.

The exercises later this month will conclude with the soldiers practicing a decapitation, in which they will train to invade the heart of the North Korean command and take out their leader according to unnamed sources in the press reports.

"Decapitation is a mission to capture or kill a high-value target, e.g., manhunting. If you get the head of the military forces, theoretically you gut the head of the snake.”

— David Maxwell, Retired Army Special Forces Colonel told the Washington Examiner

Final Thoughts

Kim Jong Un is a maniacal little dictator from a foreign land. He’s occasionally known to ass up and threaten the rest of the world, stability in the region, and like a small child, become a pain to deal with. When you take away the layers, and he might have thousands or just a few, you still find a human being. Humans aren’t that hard to read.

Anyone that knows their neighbors and their neighbors' big brother are practicing to “decapitate” them is going to feel threatened. Factor in the stature and relative insignificance of North Korea after all the years of sanctions and not being a bigger part of the world stage, and as a leader, Kim has much to prove. Publically acknowledging the drills may prove an effective way of curtailing Kim’s ambitions, or it might make him go over the edge feeling threatened. Only time will tell, but Kim and the people of North Korea would understandably be upset by the joint exercise.

It was just a few short years ago when the world had a commander-in-chief that was willing to sit at the table with Kim and try to work out all that hostility the little “rocketman” was showing. How times and diplomacy have changed.