WHAT A WAR IN NORTH KOREA WOULD LOOK LIKE
Mark Thompson
Time, June 10, 2009
To fear a new Korean war is historically inaccurate, because, in fact, the last one never ended: The world's most dangerous border, across which some 2 million North Korean, U.S. and South Korean troops face each other along the 38th Parallel of the Korean Peninsula is, in fact, simply an armistice line. On July 27, 1953, the U.S. and North Korea signed a truce pausing, but not ending, a war that claimed more than 2 million lives, including those of 36,940 U.S. troops. And the North's recent nuclear and missile saber-rattling has many growing nervous about the potential for a resumption of hostilities.
North Korea, in fact, announced on May 27 that it was withdrawing from the armistice. It declared it could no longer guarantee the safety of ships sailing through the Yellow Sea off its western coast, and would no longer respect the legal status of several islands off South Korea's coast. It also vowed to attack South Korea if North Korean vessels suspected of smuggling nuclear and missile components are stopped and searched by a U.S.-led U.N. naval armada — a proposal currently under discussion.
U.S. officials are concerned that political instability inside the Pyongyang regime may actually raise the danger of confrontation. "Dear Leader" Kim Jong Il has been weakened by a stroke suffered late last year; his 26-year old heir apparent not yet ready to take the reins; and the North Korean military is eager to maintain its pre-eminence in the coming political succession. "Any time you have a combination of this behavior of doing provocative things in order to excite a response — plus succession questions — you have a potentially dangerous mixture," said U.S. Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair on Monday.
Mark Thompson
Time, June 10, 2009
To fear a new Korean war is historically inaccurate, because, in fact, the last one never ended: The world's most dangerous border, across which some 2 million North Korean, U.S. and South Korean troops face each other along the 38th Parallel of the Korean Peninsula is, in fact, simply an armistice line. On July 27, 1953, the U.S. and North Korea signed a truce pausing, but not ending, a war that claimed more than 2 million lives, including those of 36,940 U.S. troops. And the North's recent nuclear and missile saber-rattling has many growing nervous about the potential for a resumption of hostilities.
North Korea, in fact, announced on May 27 that it was withdrawing from the armistice. It declared it could no longer guarantee the safety of ships sailing through the Yellow Sea off its western coast, and would no longer respect the legal status of several islands off South Korea's coast. It also vowed to attack South Korea if North Korean vessels suspected of smuggling nuclear and missile components are stopped and searched by a U.S.-led U.N. naval armada — a proposal currently under discussion.
U.S. officials are concerned that political instability inside the Pyongyang regime may actually raise the danger of confrontation. "Dear Leader" Kim Jong Il has been weakened by a stroke suffered late last year; his 26-year old heir apparent not yet ready to take the reins; and the North Korean military is eager to maintain its pre-eminence in the coming political succession. "Any time you have a combination of this behavior of doing provocative things in order to excite a response — plus succession questions — you have a potentially dangerous mixture," said U.S. Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair on Monday.
(...) [artículo aquí]
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