Article by Wagner Hertzog
The central figures of the conflict, there are literally no mutual agreements between the parts
In the current state of affairs, there is no denial that the North Korean threat poses as a major problem to world peace. The constant menacing from Pyongyang to Washington now goes steadily beyond innocent or vague provocations. Recently, the North Korean communist regime has threatened to bomb the American Outpost of Guam, in the Pacific Ocean. As the words between heads of state gets more and more aggressive, current president Donald J. Trump is alert, and seemingly ready to take the hardest measures to protect the integrity of the American territory, U.S. citizens and the allied nations of South Korea and Japan, as they will be in the line of fire if a war is deflagrated.
Japan recently has been preparing to deal with the possibility of a sudden attack. In some Japanese cities, there has been systematic training of civilians, that teaches them how to react in the verge of a war; they have been receiving systematic training specially for chemical or biological weapons. Due to proximity with North Korea, South Korea and Japan have to take the strongest measures to ensure the safety of the civilian population in the best way possible. South Korea, although having a formidable army, is not less fearful of an imminent war. In tension times like these they remember that the Korean War never actually ended; they live solely on the deal of an armistice, since a formal peace treaty was never signed. And, although there are plans to reunite the two countries, to live altogether as a single nation, there is no agreement upon how this fact could be accomplished, since no side will just allow the other to take over its territory. Both Koreas claim the legitimacy to rule over the entire peninsula, which was divided in two incompatible nations by the Soviet Union and the United States in 1945, after the Second World War. Then a territory controlled by Japan, the country lost its claim over the Korean Peninsula after being defeated by the Allies.
Japan recently has been preparing to deal with the possibility of a sudden attack. In some Japanese cities, there has been systematic training of civilians, that teaches them how to react in the verge of a war; they have been receiving systematic training specially for chemical or biological weapons. Due to proximity with North Korea, South Korea and Japan have to take the strongest measures to ensure the safety of the civilian population in the best way possible. South Korea, although having a formidable army, is not less fearful of an imminent war. In tension times like these they remember that the Korean War never actually ended; they live solely on the deal of an armistice, since a formal peace treaty was never signed. And, although there are plans to reunite the two countries, to live altogether as a single nation, there is no agreement upon how this fact could be accomplished, since no side will just allow the other to take over its territory. Both Koreas claim the legitimacy to rule over the entire peninsula, which was divided in two incompatible nations by the Soviet Union and the United States in 1945, after the Second World War. Then a territory controlled by Japan, the country lost its claim over the Korean Peninsula after being defeated by the Allies.
Kim Jong-un has been the ruler of North Korea since his father died, in 2011.
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Recently, Pyongyang threatened to bomb the American territory of Guam, in the Pacific.
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Xi Jinping, the president of China, is apparently trying to act as a mediator of the conflict. Willing to do everything to ensure peaceful negotiations, his priority is not to compromise China’s neutrality in the process, since North Korea is a long-standing commercial partner. This stance, however, has severely compromised a more solid solution to the problem, since Beijing seems always reluctant to be firm and resolute with Pyongyang. Nevertheless, recently China supported ONU’s unrestrictive economic sanctions against North Korea, which enraged Pyongyang. Unfortunately, the slow pace China has been taking to contribute to a possible resolution to the escalating military tension between the two countries has been infuriating president Donald Trump, that seems tempted to put China completely out of the equation. A pragmatic individual, the kind that wants problems solved, Donald Trump gets severely impatient with the China’s week assertions, appearing to be fearful of reprimanding Pyongyang with severity.
Evidently, this is a problem that will require strong characters fully committed to find a plausible and – preferentially – quiet and discreet solution. War must be the last resource ever; only if no other alternatives can be created, then a conflict could be speculated. But what can we do in what concerns Kim Jong-un, a man that seems to be, at the best possible evaluation, an egocentric, maniacal, nefarious, hostile and rude dictator?
Evidently, this is a problem that will require strong characters fully committed to find a plausible and – preferentially – quiet and discreet solution. War must be the last resource ever; only if no other alternatives can be created, then a conflict could be speculated. But what can we do in what concerns Kim Jong-un, a man that seems to be, at the best possible evaluation, an egocentric, maniacal, nefarious, hostile and rude dictator?
President Donald Trump promissed a hard retaliation, if the North Korean Government dares to strike the US.
While the tensions ardently escalates, and we sincerely hope that the nations involved doesn’t need to resort to warfare to solve their differences, this prospect is in no way realistic: Kim Jong-un is an insane dictator, that – against all international cooperation agreements – keeps fabricating, stocking and testing atomic weapons in his country, and constantly exhibiting his nuclear power for the rest of the world to see. Who can hold back this mad tyrant, besides the United States? If Kim Jong-un decides to invade a neighboring country – and, in this case, South Korea would be the best guess –, and meets little to no resistance, nor a sign of disapproving from other countries, the North Korean sovereign could proceed for as long as he wants. It is insanely urgent that someone detains him, and contains his belligerent and expansionist ideals. Indirectly and subtlety intimidating the neighboring countries, North Korea is discreetly emerging from its warfare game, seeing which are the ones they can provoke, and which are the ones they have to be most cautious. An evidently militarist country, with one of the largest armies in the world, certainly, with all these political, diplomatic and military provocations, the resulting tensions would generate the perfect atmosphere for conflict. Now, we depend once more on the United States to detain the tyrant, deprive him of his dangerous weapons, and restrict him to his feudalistic territory.
Wagner
Wagner
