Pope Francis was on his way to Chile to start his South American visit last Monday, January 15, when he said he was afraid that a nuclear war could break out at any time. “I think we are at the very edge,” he said. “One accident is enough to precipitate things.”
The Pope had in mind the threat posed by North Korea whose leader Kin Jong Un has repeatedly told the United States that it now has intercontinental ballistic missiles armed with nuclear warheads that can hit any city on the US mainland.
On the same day that the Pope was voicing his fears, the Japanese Coast Guard reported that the wreckage of a boat with the bodies of seven North Koreans had washed ashore in central Japan. The Coast Guard said it was the latest of an increasing number of North Korean fishing vessels filled with dead crewmen it had encountered – 66 in 2016, then 104 in 2017. The fishermen were believed sailing farther out to sea in an effort to have bigger catches, as the United Nations (UN)-imposed economic sanctions have begun to affect the North Koreans.
North Korea has stolidly endured the UN sanctions all these years, without stepping back from its nuclear and missile tests. It is now evidently suffering from this hard-headed view that it needs nuclear arms to be able to stand up against the Americans, whose its aircraft carriers and destroyers have been deployed in the seas nearby.
If it is not backing down and its people are now beginning to suffer from the UN economic sanctions, what can the world expect from North Korea?
This is what caused Pope Francis to express his fears last Monday. It takes only one mistake to start a war – a button to send missiles flying off to enemy territory. It was feared such a button had been pushed last Saturday, January 13, when the people of Hawaii were warned that an incoming ballistic missile was on the way. It turned out that someone in Hawaii had just pushed the wrong warning button.
This must have been on Pope Francis‘ mind when he voiced his fears of a nuclear war last Monday. It need not be an actual missile attack to start the war; it could just be a push on the wrong button. A mistake that could be answered with another mistake, sending missiles in immediate retaliation.
We can only share Pope Francis’ fears at this time. But we hope responsible officials on all sides – in the US, in North and South Korea, in Japan and China, and in the United Nations – will all realize how close the world is today to the danger of nuclear war and annihilation and take concrete steps now to remove the danger.