Thursday, December 2, 2010

New Situation on the Peninsula

So I guess I was wrong, at least partly, in my post about 2 months ago about North and South Korea. In that post, I wrote:

"I really don't see any military conflict happening in the near future, thank goodness. I also don't see reunification happening between the Koreas for at least a decade. The succession in North Korea will probably occur smoothly and I doubt the new leader will make any visible changes to foreign policy. Japan and China will get over this incident because they are big trading partners and sometimes economics trumps politics. So, in my opinion the region will remain in this standstill for now."

That's one of the cool things about keeping a blog, is that you can actually see how your perspectives and situations change. If you've read the news, you probably have heard about how North Korea fired shells onto South Korea's territory. It was an unprovoked attack on civilians and has definitely further raised tensions in the region. This action just shows how unpredictable North Korea is. Why are they being belligerent when they depend on their neighbors for so much food aid? Additionally, the North is in a fragile state right now, dealing with their leadership transition.

So does North Korea have some sort of method behind this madness? Or are the leaders just mad, likely in more ways than one? I'm not sure, but China should really try to get a hold of the situation. It seems to be the one remaining anchor that can keep North Korea stable.

4 comments:

  1. Do you think the Koreas would actually war over a couple of islands? I still can't picture them turning to ground troops, especially when NK is so economically weak. And did you hear about the wikileak of China being willing to allow unification?

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  2. I don't think the point of the attack was to try to take control over the island. It was more of a political gesture signifying their military might or aggression. I'm not sure about the exact figures of the NK military but I do know that they spend a disproportionate amount of their GDP on their military, so they probably would have the military ability.

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  3. I was under the impression that, actually going to war, NK would have to spend even more on its military, which would hasten its collapse. Similar to the major Chinese dynasties - EA History exam next Tuesday *~*''

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  4. " but China should really try to get a hold of the situation." YES. They should. They are the only one actually supporting N. Korea and since they are fast rising as a superpower, N. Korea probably takes much comfort in that fact. Truthfully, I'm pissed off at the Chinese government for being such cowards and not standing up to N. Korea.

    By the way, N. Korea is CRAZy. just plain INSANE. Nobody can predict them.

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