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How far can this go?

    

Garth McLennan
Editor in Chief

ensions between North Korea

and, with the exception of

China, pretty much the rest
of the world have been tense for
quite some time now. However, in
the last two weeks or so, things
have been considerably ratcheted
after the reclusive communist state
bombarded a tiny island close to
North Korean waters that belongs
to South Korea.

It’s difficult to discern what
exactly the North stands to gain
from the assault. After months
of over-the-top threats to both
the South and to the United
States, North Korea finally acted
militarily, killing a score of people
in response to South Korean war
games taking place far south of the
North’s territorial waters.

In response to what can best
be described as a completely
unwarranted and unprovoked attack,
the United States has deployed
several nuclear armed destroyers
to support the South Korean navy,
and the two combined forces
have begun performing military
exercises as a show of unified force
against the North, who have, to say
the least, freaked out in response.

It’s just so hard to see the
North’s point of view here,
from any perspective. To put it
bluntly, they couldn’t have done
anything stupider. I mean, the
result shelling the South’s island
was near universal condemnation
internationally (with the notable

exception of China, North Korea’s
only significant ally left in the
world) and a greatly increased
military presence from the U.S.
and South Korea around them. The
North’s leadership had to know that
was the only possible consequence
of their actions. It’s easy to write
them off as simply insane (and

so far there is plenty of reason to
justify that theory), but that just
seems too easy.

The fact is, North Korea has
painted itself into a horrible corner
of which there really isn’t anyway
out. The United States and South
Korea aren’t just going to sweep
this under the rug and forget about
it. This isn’t going to pass like so
many of their hysterical threats.
And despite what they may think,
China isn’t about to sacrifice the
trillions of dollars the States owes
them in loan repayments (and the
massive dependency the Chinese
economy has on the western
world) to protect an increasingly
unpredictable and wild ally. That
just isn’t going to happen.

So where do they all-go from
here? North Korea has made no
secret whatsoever that they have
nuclear capabilities, but there’s no
way they can legitimately think
they can withstand a full ground
invasion by South Korea and a U.S.
lead United Nations allied force.
That’s beyond unrealistic.

This has the potential to end
in true tragedy, but one way or
another, the international life of
North Korea will never be the same
again.

 

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