An ATP Report Production – On This Episode Barry Nussbaum gives the recent history of North Korean threats against America including their recent missile and nuclear testing. He outlines the American response to the North Korean threats by both Secretary of State Tillerson and Vice President Pence.

Welcome to this segment of The Truth Report, I’m Barry Nussbaum.

Over the past few weeks North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un has greatly ramped up his crazy train antics to a level not seen in several years.  Keep in mind, he runs the most restrictive police state in the world.  Many call North Korea the most brutal regime on the planet, with a leader who runs a country that is one big prison camp!  With perhaps millions of his citizens literally on starvation diets, the national budget is devoted almost entirely to supporting a massive army, combined with various aggressive missile programs and an established and verified nuclear weapons program.

Today on The Truth Report we will examine the truth behind North Korea’s latest provocations against the U.S. and her allies in Asia.

Here is the latest news:

North Korea has ramped up its weapons development, violating multiple United Nations security council resolutions without being deterred by sanctions.  The rogue nation conducted two nuclear test explosions and 24 ballistic missile tests in 2016.

Earlier in April, Kim Jong Un’s foreign office released a statement saying that his army would reduce the U.S. to “ashes with its hwasong rockets tipped with nuclear warheads.”  Over the weekend, North Korea conducted a ground test of a new type of high-thrust rocket engine that leader Kim Jong Un called a revolutionary breakthrough for the country’s space program, their news agency reported.  Then Saturday’s test at a submarine base on North Korea’s eastern coast ended almost as soon as it began.  The missile, which seems to have been a medium-range KN-17 model, and had what the state department described as “prohibited technology,” exploded four to five seconds after launch.  It’s unclear whether it used the solid fuel infrastructure North Korea has been working so hard to adopt, or liquid fuel.  North Korea did another KN-17 test on April 4 that progressed a bit farther, but that missile crashed into the Sea of Japan after traveling less than 40 miles.

Last month Kim Jong Un released a fiery propaganda video with scenes including troops blowing up a U.S. navy aircraft carrier and bomber.  The video showed fictional footage of North Korean troops destroying the USS Carl Vinson, and a B-51 bomber is shown meeting a similar fate moments later.  The video clip, nearly 3 minutes in length, was an apparent response to the joint U.S./South Korean military exercises in the region.  A female narrator said in the background, “a knife will be stabbed into the throat of the carrier, while the bomber will fall from the sky after getting hit by a jail of fire.”   That movie masterpiece was followed up this past week by a new video showing a North Korean missile attack that destroys an American city.

Last Monday, a spokesman for North Korea’s foreign ministry slammed U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s recent talk of tougher sanctions, more pressure, and possible military action, and said the north would not be deterred in its nuclear program.

“The nuclear force of (North Korea) is the treasured sword of justice and the most reliable war deterrence to defend the socialist motherland and the life of its people,” the official Korean central news agency quoted the spokesman as saying.

North Korea is a conundrum: seemingly barren and with third world living conditions, yet it just held a grandiose military parade reminding the world that the country is locked and loaded.  As detached as North Korea appears to be from the rest of the globe, the country is maintaining a stream of revenue from somewhere to finance its impressive slew of intercontinental ballistic missiles. Where does that money come from?  A myriad of places.

“North Korea has both an overt and covert economy through which it gains money,” said Bruce Klingner, a heritage foundation senior fellow who suggests North Korea’s money flow is very diverse.  “The overt economy is predominantly sales of natural resources,” he said.  “The covert economy is harder to estimate, but consists of weapons sales, the counterfeiting of U.S. $100 bills, production and distribution of illegal narcotics, cigarettes and pharmaceuticals, including Viagra, insurance scams, money laundering, and cybercrime.”  According to Klingner, that laundry list of dubious activities extends to “skimming the wages of North Korean workers overseas” and North Korean diplomats “involved in illegal sales of wildlife, rhino horn and ivory.”

It is nearly impossible to have a dialogue about North Korea’s finances without mentioning China.  “Without China, North Korea would be in a state of collapse,” explained Nicholas Eberstadt, an American enterprise institute scholar and North Korea expert.  “China is the huge and dominant actor in exports and imports for North Korea.  North Korea’s main activities include developing weapons of mass destruction so China supports that, of course, along with illicit activities such as counterfeiting and drug sales.”

In response came a very tough talk from Vice President Mike Pence who flew to South Korea and said the American sword stands ready.  The problem with North Korea is clearly ramping up weekly, with no ready solution in sight at this time.

Stay in touch, we will be following up on this story!

You can write to me directly by sending me an email to: barry@3xu.0c4.myftpupload.com.  And go to our website where you can sign up to be on our mailing list so you never miss an important episode.  You can handle the truth! We intend to bring it to you, I’m Barry Nussbaum.