DOC: Hey, there it's Doc Thompson. We'll get some of your calls about what we're supposed to do about North Korea being somebody that is torn between helping people that are truly oppressed and caring about human rights and my fellow man as a Christian but also somebody who says it's not our responsibility to police the world. And North Korea's going to be a quagmire if we get involved. Even if we do good there, there will be as many pain that we're going to have to endure. Likely something is amping up. We are coming to a head one way or another with this. I don't know if it's tomorrow or six months from now. But eventually, we're going to have to deal with North Korea, whatever that is. It could just be some sort of cyber attack that we unleash. It could be something more militarily. Based on what happened over the weekend, I wouldn't be shocked if we see something today or tomorrow. If it doesn't happen today or tomorrow, it will be weeks down the road.
BRANDON: You think from our side?
DOC: From our side. What happened over the weekend is likely to spur Trump and our allies to take some sort of action.
BRANDON: Yeah.
DOC: They launched another missile. This was a -- this was yesterday. It was a asked you-type missile, and they keep increasing the technology and the payload that it can carry. The one over the weekend went into the Sea of Japan where ships come and trade. That's where it landed, clearly trying to intimidate them. And this has gotten more accurate and closer to Japan than some of the other ones in the past. Japan of course is pissed. They freaked out. South Korea is freaked out. They immediately called for an emergency meeting of the security counsel. Trump was speaking with them soon after it happened as well. The president of South Korea called for that emergency meeting. Now, Kim Jong-un has only been in power for six years. Okay? And he's already tested more missiles than his father and grandfather did combined. So his father Kim Il-sung tested 16 over his administration. His father Kim Jong-il tested 15. And Kim Jong-un, 78. 16 and 15 for their entire administration. Their entire rule, and he's done 78 in six years.
BRANDON: Maybe you can help me out on this because I'm very confused. After the sanctions were passed not long ago like in 2016, Kim Jong-un responded by building these high-rises in Pyongyang to make sure that everyone still knew he was the boss man; right? The problem is they didn't have the necessary materials for this high-rise. They actually had to skimp on a lot. In order to compensate, they went to people's residences and said give me your pots and pans, any kind of metal that you have so that we can actually put it into this high-rise.
BRAD: Melt them down.
BRANDON: Melting them down. If they didn't have anything to give, by the way, the fine them. So if they don't have the necessary materials build a high-rise in Pyongyang, how are they getting all of the material they need to throw into all of the missiles for all of these tests?
DOC: They're getting a lot of it from the black market but also over the years from China. China has been their up front trading partners. And I think part of the reason they're amping up now is China is caught. If they want to keep the money coming from the U.S. without us buying their cheap crap, they have to appease us a little bit. And that 38 parallel is not -- what do they care if North Korea became part of South Korea? It became a republic, a democracy. They're still right there. It's not going to be as big of a deal as it used to be. South Korea is already in the region. So they've been putting more economic pressure on North Korea saying we're not going to trade with you as much. They've turned back their coal ships, so North Korea is reluctantly to sell. Many experts say that they think the pace North Korea's on with building their missiles that they can reach -- could reach Seattle and carry one of their own built nuclear warhead before the end of Trump's administration. His first term.
BRAD: Well, that's what Kim Jong-un has said. The bigger gift packages to the United States is what they're working on. A bigger gift package to the United States after successfully launching that.
DOC: Either that's lost in translation.
BRANDON: A little strange.
DOC: Or is it being snarky or maybe turning over a new leaf. Sorry about that missile. I've got a big gift package for you coming. It's a nice fruit basket. It will have some CDs in it. How do you feel --
BRANDON: No, this is North Korea. They're still on tape.
BRAD: Cassettes.
BRANDON: I've got some mix tapes coming your way.
DOC: I've got some cassettes. I've made them myself. Kim Jong-un giving speeches of himself on tape. All of those classes that he took. You know. It's highly likely that North Korea was also responsible for that cyber attack, that malware one that hit 150 countries, a bunch of banks a couple of weeks ago. It looks like Russia may have got the technology from the NSA by hacking part of it. And then tried to sell it on the world stage. That's one of the allegations and were not successful. But that North Korea then put it into use. And North Korea has its own floor of people that do nothing but hacking, and they're really good at it. This is something we've known for a while. So if that's true, something they call malware exportation, it may be responsible for some of the past attacks, the one that was Sony a couple of years ago. This is now a national security threat by itself. And then the continued missile testing and the fact that they have nuclear capabilities. What are we going to do? Should we do anything? Is it actually a threat? Your calls coming up next on the Glenn Beck Radio Program.
[break]
DOC: Doc Thompson for Glenn today. Joining me brag stags and also Brandon Morse as well from The Blaze. We do get to some of your calls, the aggressions, specifically the missiles that North Korea has launched in the few months onshore so. But let's go right to North Carolina and Henry. How are you? Hey, Henry, welcome to the Glenn Beck Program. How are you?
CALLER: Fine how are you?
DOC: Doing well. So what do we do about North Korea?
CALLER: Well, first of all, what we do is test our NATO allies, choke them off and see which allies are really with us. And it's a test for both worlds and the blockades have always worked throughout history. I haven't -- I don't recall one that did not work, so, to me, -- and then if it pushes them into the aggression, then they're the aggressors.
DOC: The sanctions that we put in place over the years have been somewhat effective. We've put them on the hook sometimes. But recently, we haven't. In fact, we have China saying we're not going to take their coal, they've turned back their ships, and then China is not trading to send them goods. So there are effectively blockades in place. Maybe not to the extreme you're talking about. And then secondarily, if it pushes them into being the aggressor, that makes us look better. But it still doesn't make us look better stopping the almost 30,000 U.S. troops in South Korea, Seoul, Japan, it still doesn't deal with the problem, does it?
CALLER: Well, if China has them cut off by land, they're cutting off the gas supplies and whatnot, then the last thing left is cutting them off by sea. So my thinking would be that if we cut them off in both areas, and we are walking hand and hand with China so to speak and then like I said, NATO is a big issue right now, and we test to see who would like to send a ship or two to also help because the world needs to take on the problem. But we need to take a lead.
DOC: Henry, thank you so much for the call. I appreciate it.
BRANDON: My problem with this is that Kim Jong-un is a vindictive person. When he feels like he's been slighted or if he feels he's been made to look weak, he reacts in very odd ways. Like I said earlier, he built a whole series of high-rises in Pyongyang with money that he doesn't have. If the world gangs up on him, his mentality, the Juche mentality that all North Koreans are hammered with will kick in, and he'll pretty much lash out on everybody.
DOC: Well, he's a crazy man.
BRANDON: He's insane.
DOC: Let's go to Bill in California. Bill, you're on the Glenn Beck Radio Program. How are you?
CALLER: Yeah, this whole thing with the missiles. Number one, I think they're giving us free targets to practice our antimissile capabilities. Only downside is if they fail, then these people are going to go, oh, we can't do that because we'll look bad. I think we should just take advantage of that and use that we do have ships over there, et cetera. The other thing is President Trump needs to -- he's already talking to Japan and South Korea, and they need to tell these people just like they did with NATO. Look, all of this is costing us a fortune. The ships, the men, the missiles, everything. And you guys if you want us to help you, we need some financial help or some kind of help that's real. You know, some real materials or whatever it is because we're broke. We're 20 trillion in debt and growing.
DOC: Well, Bill, I get that. But how do we -- first of all, should we take some sort of action at this point? Based on their --
CALLER: Yeah, this guy just like you just said. You know, he's vindictive. This guy is not going to change.
DOC: So we have to go in and nip it. Just take out the snake.
CALLER: We have to because it's like a -- it's like the PLOs and the Israelis. It's going to go on forever. But this guy isn't going to wait forever.
DOC: Do you say that based on America's national security. Is that your motivating force here?
CALLER: Well, it's not just ours. We have obligations to our allies. Okay. You've got this gun, and you've built all of this stuff up and now you're going to do nothing? Because all we've had so far is just lip flapping, so to speak. We're saying this and that and the other but no action, and we need some action. And it's, like. Okay. Everybody's afraid of World War III. Well, you know, this guy is shooting missiles. And it's, like, he's threatening, and he has to be stopped.
DOC: Well, the reason I ask that -- the reason I ask your motivations, and I agree with you with those points as well. Thanks so much for the call. The reason I ask that, the DMZ is about two and a half miles wide, and it is one of the, if not the most fortified border on the planet. North Korea has amassed, aside from nukes and aside from missile technology, they have amassed guns, robotic launchers, I mean, it is on that border. All 150 miles coast to coast. It is just lined. It is thick. Seoul is 30 miles or so from the DMZ. Pyongyang isn't that much from the other side. They can easily kill tens of thousands of people in Seoul. Soul has about 20 million people. More than New York. New York has about 7.5 million or so in the city in the metropolitan tin area, so 15 total. It's more populated than New York, just to give you some perspective.
If we go in and American soldiers die, and I think there's about 30,000 in South Korea, we don't want any American soldiers to die. But at least soldiers know that they're in there and can be called upon at any time to fight. But the other Americans that are there and the South Korean's who are a partner, they're going to die. There are going to be people die. So I don't know if we can stop them from dying. But then again, if you say this is going to get really bad, and they could hit Seattle, you know, by the end of Trump's first term with a nuke and the guy is crazy enough to do it, and then you've got all the malware attacks and whatever, how long before they release something that shuts us down? And think about this, folks, if we have a disruption in our Internet capability. It doesn't even have to be electronic. If we have that for a day, Americans will wig out.
BRAD: Yeah, 20 minutes without Internet. Those commercials.
BRANDON: The economy will take a hard dive too. I mean, it will. That's a lot of where our business is right now.
DOC: Right. We've learned. And remember, the attack on 9/11 wasn't just about fear and the 3,000 people who died and the planes and the buildings. It was also an economic attack. Do you know how much damage they did with that alone? That's what terrorism does. It hits on all those fronts. There was a time I think three years ago or so where the EBT card system, which is just the electric benefits, electric food stamps --
BRANDON: Oh, I remember this story.
DOC: They're on, like, credit cards. It went down in six states for, like, ten hours or whatever it was for a Friday or Saturday.
BRANDON: I don't even know if it was that long.
DOC: A few hours.
BRANDON: Yeah.
DOC: It was chaos. People were looting. And I don't mean in the ghetto and the poor. It was average places that people said to hell with it if I want to swipe, I'm going. And the stores said we better let them go. That was just a few hours in six states. Imagine that not even the course of a week or two just a couple of days for awe of our Internet, technology, credit cards, or whatever. Think about what it does to all of us. It stops all plans we have. It stops us from booking flights, getting money out of the bank, people wig out, civil disobedience, the economy. If they unleash something like that.
BRAD: Our last caller said that they're giving us a lot of targets for antimissile system. The system has worked in fewer than half of its previous nine tests. So we're not doing real well on that front either.
DOC: We've tested some missiles recently as well, which is back and forth kind of a tit for tat. And we've got one now I think today there's a test that is specifically an intercepter one. If the missiles we will test today if we can hit somebody, it's if we could block a missile from coming in.
BRANDON: Didn't the IDF perfect this technology? I mean, their whole dome idea --
DOC: The iron dome.
BRANDON: Yeah, they can easily catch a missile in midair.
DOC: I don't know how perfected. But they've tested it, and it has worked. Let's get some calls. (888) 727-Beck. Let's go to Chris in Florida now. Chris, how are you?
CALLER: Oh, I'm fantastic. I love your discussion this morning. And, in fact, I've meet you before.
DOC: It was exciting, wasn't it?
BRANDON: He's tall.
DOC: Thank you so much. What do we do about North Korea?
CALLER: Well, I think we need to make it simple for everyone. The lesson of Neville Chamberlain is blatantly obvious. We cannot cower to bullies. Being nice to dictators doesn't ensure safety, in fact, it results in larger consequences later on. So the appeasement medal in Albright accomplished under previous regimes has essentially made them more powerful in their belligerence, and we have to let them know.
DOC: Is North Korea now at some point where we do something? And is North Korea different from other places that are bad that could be a threat? Even Iran I think is a step behind with their nuclear development. Is North Korea at that level now in your mind?
CALLER: Oh, absolutely. And I think we need to be consistent in our behavior and do this wherever we find bullying. We can't cower with bullies. It's as simple as that. You can't trade with people who are taking captives and doing bad things. You don't give them more tools so that they can do worse later, and that's exactly what we've done in North Korea. We have to stand up to them because the side effects are going to be worse. The collateral damage is going to be even worse. The more he learns and the more he finds it useful as a tool.
DOC: Well, listen, Chris, I appreciate your call this morning. And I agree with bullies, which is the reason I gave James on camera a noogie.
BRANDON: I took Jason's lunch money.
DOC: Well, you may be the problem. Let's go quickly to Pennsylvania to George. Good morning, sir. Welcome to the Glenn Beck Program.
CALLER: Hey, Doc. The earliest how I see it is what is the longer term gain for North Korea by having a war? It seems to me that there is bigger benefit for them to be having a threat of using a weapon, unless they are in conspiracy with other countries that if you take a look at North Korea, what are they? They're nothing. And besides that, you talked about before about China turning back their coal, there's not. There have been reports that the coal trucks and the coal trains are rolling across the border anyway. The ships may be turning back, but they're going back over land. And so what is the benefit of North Korea having a war? I don't see it unless North Korea is just going to be the sacrificial punching bag where North Korea is the one that launches the EMP or the nuke or something like that.
DOC: So do you think we're okay right now, and we should just kind of ride this out a little bit?
CALLER: I think we should show strength. I think we could throw a few more sanctions on them. This is not a show of weakness. This is not a Neville Chamberlain moment. I think it's more. They've got more to lose by not having action.
DOC: Do we have the responsibility to people of North Korea that are being tortured to the inth degree?
CALLER: To a degree, yes. But we do not need to go charging in there to save them at our boys expense. It is not so much our problem, unfortunately. I don't want to come off as being heartless to those people. But there are some problems we can't solve.
DOC: I agree with that, George. Thank you so much for the call. I appreciate it. That makes a lot of sense. As far as sanctions, I don't know how much more you can do. But North Korea really is a suicide bomber.
BRAD: Yeah, that's what I was going to say. That's assigning logic to North Korea.
DOC: And he's crazy. Kim Jong-un is crazy. You can't be raised in that environment to believe all of this stuff and not, you know, be sizing things up. You've got yes-men around you that tell you that you're great. He's essentially a suicide bomber, and he doesn't know it.
BRANDON: Yeah.
DOC: He could kill tens of thousands of people.
BRANDON: Absolutely.
DOC: But he will be dead within hours. This is not a hold it out, we're going to have to hunt for him. He and his family and his regime, they will be obliterated. But the fear is that he will do a lot of damage beforehand. Back in a moment with more calls on the program. It's Doc Thompson in for Glenn
Beck.
[break]
DOC: Secretary of Defense Mattis was asked about North Korea, and he said a conflict with North Korea would probably be the worst kind of fighting in most people's lifetime. The bottom line is it would be a catastrophe, a catastrophic war if this turns into a combat. If we're not able to resolve this situation through diplomatic means. A bunch of people are going to die. It's going to be pretty rough. But they also asked on face the nation, they asked Mattis what keeps him up at night. Did you -- listen to this.
VOICE: What keeps you awake at night?
MATTIS: Nothing. I keep other people awake at night.
[Laughter]
BRAD: That's --
DOC: It almost sounds like a stop line. I am the danger.
BRANDON: I am the danger.
DOC: Right.
BRANDON: I am the one that has --
BRAD: How long has he had that line just waiting?
DOC: An entire bucket full of sayings that he --
BRANDON: How many does he have? He's out there saying all sorts of stuff. I'm saying this with tears in my eyes. Don't F with me, or I'll cull kill you. That's awesome.
DOC: Almost like the --
BRANDON: He has a writer. He has a team of writers in the back also working on the "Fast and Furious" movies.
DOC: That should give you a little bit of confidence. But the point is, if this guy, I keep people awake at night is telling you North Korea is going to be bad if we don't do something militarily, that's something -- that's the guy you walk in -- no, we can kick their ass; right? No, this is going to be really bad for some people. It's not going to be good.
