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| Thought this was absolutely hilarious, though admittedly a bit inappropriate.... oh well... |
Tension has long existed between the US and North Korea, but this week was especially filled with a flurry of hostile remarks by the North Koreans. The UN unanimously voted this Thursday on tougher sanctions against North Korea, a vote that was prompted by North Korea's supposedly successful satellite launch in December of last year. Hours before the vote, North Korea threatened a "possible preemptive attack." Leading up to the vote, North Korea stated on Tuesday that it planned to abandon the 1953 armistice between North Korea and South Korea. Obviously, this raised some alarms all around the world. But the UN vote was not the only thing that propelled North Korea to threats. This week, the US and South Korea began a series of military exercises that will last two months. The exercises have been named "Foal Eagle." While North Korea claims these exercises are "an open declaration of war," South Korea insists that they are "defensive in nature."
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| North Korea's infamous Kim Jong-un |
Though the whole week is a significant increase in verbal provocation by the North Koreans, Thursday's threat is arguably the most worrisome. A North Korean foreign minister stated that North Korea "will exercise the right to a preemptive nuclear attack to destroy the strongholds of the aggressors and to defend the supreme interests of the country." Despite this, several analysts assert that North Korea is many years away from being able to accurately launch an intercontinental nuclear attack. South Korea's President Park Guen-hye, who political analysts believe cannot afford to appear weak during this escalation of hostilities, has stated that "Seoul would respond strongly to any provocation from Pyongyang."
But where was North Korea's key ally when Pyongyang needed them most? A single vote could have stopped the passage of the sanctions against North Korea, a vote that China withheld. Chinese UN Ambassador Li Baodong said, "China is a country of principle... We are committed to safeguarding peace and stability on the Korean peninsula." Additionally, China's Foreign Ministry urged "all relative parties to stay calm and refrain from taking actions that may escalate tension." Apparently, Korean peace does not involve supporting North Korea advance its nuclear program.
What do you think North Korea will do in the coming days/weeks? Will they abandon their hostile remarks? Will South Korea respond to further hostilities with force or more diplomacy? Theoretically, what would China do if North Korea succeeded in attacking South Korea or the United States? Following that train of thought, would a North Korean nuclear attack trigger a global war, or would it simply translate into the imminent demise of the North Korean government?
5 comments:
North Korea definitely will not discontinue their hostile remarks. They feel threatened by the UN sanctions and feel their best defense is to increase tension. If not provoked, South Korea will probably continue diplomatic attempts at ending hostilities. They obviously do not want to restart a war. China, I believe, will act in a similar manner. Based on the UN vote, the Chinese don't seem like they are %100 behind North Korea. If anything, they would try to hold back their ally in the case of an armed attack on the US or South Korea.
China used to be a huge ally of North Korea, but not anymore; as Marvin said, they are definitely not 100 percent behind NK, and I think the only reason China is allied with them is 1. to not let go of Cold War ties for old times' sake, and 2. to have North Korea as simply a buffer between South Korea and the US. If North Korea did attack South Korea, I don't think China will do much except send some weapons to North Korea. This isn't the mid 1900's, when China would have sent troops by the thousands to its ally if in a war
I think this is more of North Korea talking tough to try not to show weakness. Obviously, any threat of this magnitude has to be taken very seriously, but these hostile threats don't seem to be anything new. The fact that China will not even try to vote down a sanction which they have veto power to do shows that are not very strongly sided with there ally and probably will do little or even nothing if the threats escalate to actual force.
I agree with Sam about North Korea putting up a tough front. I feel this issue is more political-based than it is action-based. North Korea can't be subservient to us as we continue to keep these sanctions on them because then its citizens will lose all respect for their country. Obviously, this escalating tension is bad, but both Korea's seem to have no other political options at this moment. They must continue putting up tough fronts until one begins to back down, but we can't have this be happening because we learned during the Cold War that this is a very dangerous game to be playing, especially when nuclear weapons are involved.
North Korea is like a child, goodness gracious. Their screaming will only get louder and louder when they don't get the attention (or rather, respect) they want. Not saying that we should give them any recognition. But, in all likelihood, North Korea will not be a likely threat in the future. They can't even launch a rocket, and especially with the sanctions, I'm not terribly worried about them getting their hands on a nuclear bomb. Basically, to paraphrase Jenna Mourey, North Korea needs to sit the frick down.
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