Kiernan and Simon address Trump’s and Kim’s genocidal rhetoric

September 26, 2017

In an editorial published in the Washington Post on September 26, GSP Founding Director Ben Kiernan and GSP Director David Simon addressed the recent exchange of threats by Donald Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un to use nuclear weapons against each other’s respective countries (and, in the later case, against Japan).  The language that both leaders have chosen to employ seems to signal an “intent to destroy” specific national groups, and are thus tantamount to threatening “genocide.”  Kiernan and Simon call on the UN to recognize the rhetoric as such, and warn that should nuclear weapons be used, prosecution for genocide may be appropriate.