When Jocko Willink was asked on Twitter how he would handle the escalating threat from North Korea he gave a surprising answer.
Rather than using military moves or bomb strikes, Mr Willink said he would simply give the North Koreans iPhones.
Writing on Twitter, he said: “Drop 25 million iPhones on them and put satellites over them with free wifi.”
While the answer is simplistic, bringing unrestricted information into North Korea would change the country and threaten Kim Jong-un‘s regime.
North Korea remains one of the most heavily censored countries in the world, with Kim Jong-un having a tight grip on the flow of public information.
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Mr Willink suggested an iPhone and unregulated internet would open the population’s eyes to the realities of the harsh regime they live under.
He followed up his initial tweet with another message, saying: “Free wifi, free minds!”
Speaking to Business Insider, Yun Sun, an expert on North Korea at the Stimson Center in Washington said: “Kim Jong-un understands that as soon as society is open and North Korean people realise what they’re missing, Kim’s regime is unsustainable, and it’s going to be overthrown.”
In North Korea all media is state owed and journalists are used as propaganda machines for the regime.
Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are banned with North Koreans instead using state created versions of the social media websites.
In 2014 North Korea created a new law that meant watching South Korean media or listening to foreign radio can result in 10 years of “re-education” in a prison camp.
The new clauses included a maximum penalty of death for communicating with the outside world, including phone contact.
South Korea has, in the past, flown balloons carrying pamphlets and DVDs into North Korea, prompting military backlash from Kim.
Yun Sun said: “They’re not going to denuclearize until their regime changes and society changes.
“This approach may be the longer route, but it has the hope of succeeding.”
It comes as North Korea rejected new UN sanctions on the state.
Major US allies in Asia welcomed the UN Security Council’s unanimous vote to step up sanctions on North Korea , with its profitable textile exports now banned and fuel supplies to the reclusive North capped after its sixth nuclear test.
A defiant North Korea for its part “categorically rejected” the resolution, saying the US was “fired up” for confrontation and would soon face the “greatest pain” it had ever experienced.