The Strange Story of How North Korea Smuggled in 87 U.S. Scout Helicopters
On July 27, 2013, as a column of armored personnel carriers and tanks rumbled before the stand of Kim Jong Un to commemorate the end of a bloody war with the United States 60 years earlier, four small American-made MD 500E helicopters buzzed low overhead. You can see it... Read more
What the Great Scud Hunt Says About War With North Korea
While assembling the coalition that would eject Iraqi forces from Kuwait in 1990–1991, one thing American military planners weren’t worried about was Iraq’s Scud-B tactical ballistic missiles. True, Iraq had flung hundreds of the Soviet-designed missiles at Iranian cities during the Iran-Iraq War, but the weapons were derived from Nazi V-2... Read more
The White House Could Inadvertently Goad North Korea Into Nuking the Pacific
The Trump administration may inadvertently be provoking North Korea into conducting a live-fire test of a nuclear-tipped ballistic missile. While it is clear that North Korea has both ballistic missile technology and a working hydrogen bomb, the U.S. State Department recently suggested in a tweet that Pyongyang does not... Read more
How North Korea Could Hunt U.S. Warplanes
North Korea considers a recent Twitter comment from U.S. Pres. Donald Trump to effectively be a declaration of war against Pyongyang. As such, the Kim regime says that it will retaliate — potentially even engaging U.S. Air Force bombers flying around the Korean peninsula over international waters. “The whole... Read more
How North Korea Tried to Wipe Out South Korea’s Government
It is 10:00 a.m. on Oct. 9, 1983. South Korea’s President Chun Doo Hwan is in the capital of Burma on a state visit. It is no secret his military government is struggling. The Republic of Korea may be growing more prosperous year after year, but its citizens grow... Read more
There May Be No Way to Shoot Down North Korea’s Ballistic Missiles
Just days after North Korea tested an intermediate range ballistic missile that overflew Japan, the U.S. Navy intercepted a medium range ballistic missile target on Aug. 30 using a Raytheon Standard SM-6 missile. The weapon, which was launched from USS John Paul Jones, intercepted the target in its final seconds... Read more
The Geopolitics of Crazy
The United States has beaten its head against the wall of North Korea for more than 70 years, and that wall has changed little indeed as a result. The United States, meanwhile, has suffered one headache after another. Over the last several weeks, the head banging has intensified. North... Read more
Breaking Down the North Korea Crisis
Whatever you might have heard over the last several days, the United States isn’t about to be engulfed in a ball of nuclear fire, courtesy of Kim Jong Un. It’s a little more complicated than that. That’s not to suggest that the crisis on the Korean peninsula is a... Read more
South Korea Will Try to Blow Up Kim Jong Un If He Launches Nukes
This story originally appeared on Sept. 14, 2016. If North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un orders a nuclear strike on South Korea, Seoul will attempt to kill him with missiles and devastate Pyongyang in the process. That’s according to a recent report from the Yonhap News Agency citing a military... Read more
Why China Won’t Stop North Korea
As the conflict between the United States and North Korea escalates, more and more pundits and experts have called on China to intervene. Which makes sense. Beijing is Pyongyang’s biggest trading partner and closest ally. But just because China is North Korea’s best friend doesn’t mean China has control... Read more

Matthew Gault

Contributing Editor