North Korea Threatening To Undo 1953 Armistace
In response to increased talk of additional sanctions as a result of their latest nuclear test, North Korea is blustering again:
North Korea threatened Tuesday to nullify the armistice agreement that ended the Korean War in 1953, citing U.S.-led international moves to impose new sanctions against it over its recent nuclear test, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported.
The North’s military said it will also cut off direct phone links with South Korea at the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjom, Yonhap said, citing North Korea’s news outlet.
North and South Korea have technically been at war for decades. The 1950-53 civil war ended in a truce rather than a peace treaty.
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Pyongyang continues to make “belligerent and reckless moves that threaten the region, their neighbors and now, directly, the United States of America,” said U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in a CNN interview on Tuesday.
“It’s very easy for Kim Jong Un to prove his good intent here also. Just don’t fire the next missile. Don’t have the next test. Just say you’re ready to talk,” said Kerry, speaking on the last full day of his first international trip as the nation’s top diplomat. Kim is North Korea’s leader.
While it’s always best to take these things seriously, it strikes me that this is likely yet another example of North Korea’s history of saber rattling that, with rare exceptions, doesn’t really go anywhere. If anything, they’re grasping at straws trying to find means to hold off additional sanctions and they hold a very bad hand. At the same time, though, as long as they have nuclear weapons, they’re still going to be a concern.
What makes me think the Chinese aren’t on board with this?
We should just team up with the Chinese, go in, and overturn that place….we’re going to have to deal with it at some point. Let’s do it with an actual plan, rather than having to react to circumstances when NK finally goes off its rocker and attacks Seoul.