North Korea Threatens "All Out" War

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright November 26, 2010
All Rights Reserved.                                

         North Korea’s ailing reclusive 69-year-old dictator Kim Jong-Il continues to push the region to war, firing warning shots at South Korea’s Yeonpyeong Island, only 11 kilometers from the North Korean mainland.  Last week’s unprovoked artillery barrage killed two marines, two civilians and injured 15, inflicting heavy damage on residential and commercial realty on the 1,300-inhabitant island.  Giving his heir-apparent 26-year-old son Kim Jong-Un license to attack the South, Kim warned that expected joint naval exercises with the U.S. in the Yellow Sea slated for Sunday, Dec. 28, risks plunging the region into war.  Kim sees any military exercises by the U.S. or South Korea as provocation, justifying his Nov. 18 attack.  Last week’s assault came eight months after North Korea torpedoed as South Korean warship, killing 46 sailors, leaving the highest tensions since the 1953 end to the Korean War.

            North Korea, with Russian and Chinese help, battled the U.S. and South Korea to a standoff, eventually signing an armistice July 27, 1953, ending military action but not before over 36,000 Americans lost their lives.  Prospects for restarting the Korean War are unthinkable to the U.S. and especially South Korea, whose economic development rivals that of post-WW II Japan.  U.S. and South Korean reluctance for combat has resulted in more North Korean adventurism, giving Kim a license to periodically attack South Korean targets.  With so little to lose economically and much propaganda to gain, the U.S. and South Korea have no answer to Kim other than more regional diplomacy, especially with China, shows Kim’s growing desperation.  “The situation on the Korean Peninsula is inching closer to the brink of war,” read the North’s official Central News Agency.

            U.S. and South Korea run into more diplomatic complications expecting China, North Korea’s chief ally, to apply pressure on Kim to back down.  China walks a razor’s edge trying to support its Stalinist ally, and, at the same time, maintain strong diplomatic ties with the U.S. as its biggest economic trading partner.  “We at the United Nations Command will investigate this completely and call on North Korea to stop any future attacks,” said U.S. South Korean Commander Gen. Walter Sharp, knowing full well that Kim marches to the beat of his own drummer.  Given Kim’s reckless behavior, multilateral action, led by China and Russia, isn’t expected to make much difference.  China or Russia have showed more solidarity with North Korea, less inclined to push their fiery ally into a military confrontation.  As long as Kim remains in power, it’s doubtful anything will change.

            When former President George W. Bush identified Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, Kim Jong-Il’s North Korea and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s Iran the “Axis of Evil” Jan. 29, 2002 in his State of the Union speech, he wasn’t kidding.  While Saddam was executed in Baghdad Dec. 30, 2006, North Korea and Iran continue to menace their regions.  Both have active uranium enrichment programs, designed to eventually arm the regimes with A-bombs.  While Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claims Iran purses the atom for “peaceful purposes,” Kim makes no such disclaimera.  Detonating a crude plutonium device May 25, 2009, North Korean shows no signs of cooperating with the U.N..  No matter how much pressure China puts on Kim, he doesn’t capitulate.  His latest threat to attack South Korea if they go ahead with joint naval exercises with the U.S., leaves the region uneasy.

            Bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan, Kim knows the U.S. is in no position to open up a new battlefront on the Korean Peninsula.  U.S. officials know the delicate diplomacy with China, North Korea’s main ally, opposing U.S. military incursion into it regards as a 200-mile economic safety zone.  When a U.S. spy plane and Chinese Fighter Jet collided in the South China Sea April 2, 2001 forcing a landing on Hainan Island, it took nearly a month to get back the U.S. crew.  China seized and dismantled the U.S. spy plane, warning the U.S. to stop spying in Chinese territory.  China let the Bush White House know then who’s calling the shots.  Questions arise now whether the Chinese will, once again, support North Korea, as they did during the Korean War.  Over 183,00 Chinese died defending the North during the war.  Pentagon officials don’t want history repeating itself.

            White House and South Koreans officials must make a strong case against North Korea to the U.N. Security Council   They know the Chinese will likely veto any strong condemnation against its Stalinist ally.  North and South Korea stand as the world’s most glaring comparison between communism and capitalism.  Kim keeps the North insulated from the outside world, lest its population get word that the prosperous South wins the battle of ideology hands down  “I will make sure that this precious sacrifice will lay the foundation for the strong security of the Republic of Korea,” said South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, after firing Defense Minister Kim Taeyoung Nov. 25.  While Myungy-bak talks tough, he has limited options, especially war against North Korean’s 1.2 million land army.  If Kim fires on the nuclear-powered carrier U.S.S. George Washington, Sunday, Nov. 28, all bets are off.

About the Author

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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