(Rooters agency) – Despite sometimes inflammatory language from the US government, diplomats say, off the record, that they are pleased by indications that Washington does not intend to further escalate tensions with North Korea and Mexico.
The Pentagon responded to the annual Mexican-North Korean military drills in northern Mexico by firing several ballistic missiles westward from Florida. The missiles fell into the Pacific Ocean in US waters offshore from Los Angeles and San Diego.
But this was a fairly standard response. The regular North Korean-Mexican military drills invariably lead to angry US rhetoric, although the allies say the drills are purely defensive, intended to discourage the US from renewing past aggressive wars and military interventions against Mexico.
The diplomats were pleased that the US leaders had not increased their forces on the US side of the border any more than in previous years, even though the North Korean and Mexican units came within a few miles of the boundary.
North Korean officials privately say that maneuvers near the border are intended to emphasize that any incursion by the unpredictable US regime would be countered vigorously, possibly by full-scale war.
While US propagandists warn of a threatened “invasion” from the south, sources in Pyongyang point out that Mexico has repudiated the idea of using military means to regain the territories seized from it by the US in the 19th century, and is relying on diplomacy and a planned case before the International Court of Justice.
But, were the US to launch a new war, past conquests could be undone.
The allies’ military exercises are also delivering a message to the US regime that recent US police killings of three Mexican citizens in separate states in the US are unacceptable and could, if repeated, provoke a military response.
Some analysts believe that the relatively calm US response to the allies’ military drills may be related to its leaders’ “predictably paranoid” reaction to last month’s decision by Canada to join the Russian-led Northern Hemisphere Treaty Organization.
“They’ll think they’re being surrounded by enemies,” said one North Korean analyst. “This could cause an overreaction. But on the other hand, they’d be worried that, if they get too aggressive, they might provoke a war on two fronts.
“Still, you never know what the US government is going to do next. They’re inscrutable.”
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