Pyongyang, North Korea Petrifies the Powers that Be

By: Marcus Dudas

Conducting and planning on joint military exercises in the international waters of the Yellow Sea, South Korea and the United States prepare themselves to deal with North Korean aggression.

In May, South Korea announced their suspicions of the North sinking the Cheonan, a 1200 ton naval vessel, 10 kilometers from the coast. The South suspected the ship was torpedoed by a mini submarine in Northern territory without warning.

According to Agence France-Presse of Defensenews.com, “Seoul has blamed the loss of the warship on a torpe­do attack by a North Korean submarine”, while defensetalk.com, whose correspondent was also France-Presse, cited a multinational investigation leading them to declare the evidence against the North “overwhelming” in terms of proving allegations.

Pentagon spokesperson Bryan Whitman said that oth­er military preparations would begin soon, and that they hoped it would aid in halting the proliferation of “weapons of mass destruction”.

According to CNN correspondent Larry Shaughnessy, “The Defense Department said recently that the aircraft car­rier USS George Washington and its support ships would take part in the exercises, but Whitman said Wednesday it’s unclear what U.S. Navy ships would be involved.”

North Korea has threatened their enemies many times before that retaliation was imminent if security measures were taken to a higher level at the maritime border, or that the U.S. would suffer for interfering in what the United Nations believed to be a test-run for long-range rockets capable of delivering a nuclear payload.

Although China urged South Korea and her allies not to go ahead with the precautionary exercises, South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak stated, “From now on, [South] Korea will not tolerate any provocative act by the North and will maintain the principle of proactive deterrence.”

Despite the ideological difference between the split na­tion, the South does not view the North as a mortal enemy. James Brooke of New York Times wrote “South Korean game censors say they see North Koreans as wayward cousins.” In his article, he writes about how the efforts to make peace are dear to Korea and dear to Hannah-Kim, an office worker, who said, “People want to make peace on the Korean peninsula, so North Korea is not seen as an enemy for the South Korean people.”