North Korea at War

Background History:
The Korean War was a direct result of a North Korean invasion of the South after attempts to reunify Korea under a central government failed.  Each side was supported by external powers and the conflict expanded, becoming a proxy war in the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union.   Chinese forces entered the war and allied with the North to repel the joint U.S. and South Korean counterattack.

North Korea stated today that is was officially discarding the 1953 armistice agreement signed at the end of the 1950 to 1953 Korean War.  The Armistice is a signed agreement between the United Nations, the Korean People’s Army and the Chinese People’s Volunteers.  It technically signaled the cease fire and the end of the Korean War, but neither party has ever formally signed a peace treaty.  It was primarily instrumental in the establishment of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) at approximately the 38^th parallel.  The DMZ is a 2 mile wide, 160 mile long buffer zone between North and South Korea.  For the most part, it exists to prevent the occurrence of incidents which might lead to a resumption of hostilities.  It is one of the most heavily militarized borders in the world.

An official statement issued by the North Korean state-controlled news agency threatened military action in response to South Korea’s decision of joining a United States naval effort to intercept and possibly seize freighters that are suspected of carrying weapons of mass destruction.  Adding fuel to the fire, Seoul’s government announced that it was joining the Proliferation Security Initiative aimed at prohibiting nuclear, chemical and biological weapons shipments.

North Korea interjected with the statement, “Any hostile act against our peaceful vessels including search and seizure will be considered an unpardonable infringement on our sovereignty and we will immediately respond with a powerful military strike.”

Tensions are already high after the UN scrambled to impose a new round of sanctions on Pyongyang in response to the successful detonation of a nuclear weapon device.

“We are going to add to the consequences that North Korea will face,” said U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

It is interesting to note that throughout a span of almost 50 years, the US has detonated over 1150 nuclear devices. It is the only country with tactical nuclear missiles outside its borders; deployed in seven different NATO countries.  And more importantly, is the only country to have used nuclear weapons on human beings in the history of warfare, killing over 220000 people; the overwhelmingly majority of which were civilians.

According to Russian sources, the North Korean underground blast was approximately as strong as the bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima.  It was only a month ago that the North successfully fired a multistage intercontinental ballistic missile, capable of hitting a target thousands of miles away.

Unconfirmed media outlets in the South report that North Korea has restarted its nuclear fuel reprocessing at Yongbyon, which was supposed to have been dismantled in return for massive aid for its people.