We live in the age where a diplomatic lunch between the heads of states of two countries gets cancelled due to the food menu, an age where diplomats indulge into name-calling and use false facts and images to gain global sympathy, an age where aims and aspirations of nations have made the value of human life be calculated using gallons of petroleum. But the one conflict which is more and more taking the centre stage in World Affairs is the conflict between the United States of America and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, which many have touted to be the trigger point of an impending World War 3.
Today we take a look at the series of events that have led to this current impending war between these two nations. The two nations have had completely different ideologies since their inception where the USA has been a democracy since its Independence and the DPRK since its annexation by the Empire of Japan in 1910 has been under the totalitarian dictatorship of the Kim Jong dynasty. Though DPRK calls itself a self-reliant socialist-state and holds its own elections, the same is looked upon as a cover by critics all across the globe. The two nations hold no diplomatic ties where Sweden from EU takes care of the USA’s interests in North Korea for consular work showing the amount of bitterness between the two nations. During the cold war era, USA’s involvement in the Korean War (Between North Korea, supported by the Soviet Union and South Korea, supported by the USA) had led to millions of North Koreans losing their lives. The USA’s air bombing had led to the death of about one-third of the country’s population, a percentage which is much more than any other war that took place in modern history including any nation in World War 2. Almost every North Korean family lost a member in this war and that is where their hatred for the USA stems from.
Over the last more than half a century, USA has tried to isolate North Korea and has made the global community impose multiple sanctions on the country. The first sanction imposed on North Korea by the United Nations was in the year 2006 by Resolution 1718 where the UN Security Council Sanctions Committee on North Korea was created and it started its work by imposing military arms sanction on the nation. The same was a reaction to the first nuclear test by North Korea. There are seven other sanctions that UN has imposed upon North Korea since then including inspecting armed cargos and destroying them if they have anything related to nuclear weapons, sanctions on money transfer, coal, minerals and seafood exports which contribute the major chunk of the trade done by North Korea. All these sanctions aimed at the use of financial might to force North Korea to stop its nuclear weapon program.
Lately, with the increase in Nuclear weapon tests by DPRK, where they had their sixth nuclear test take place in the month of September 2017, Pyongyang tested two intercontinental ballistic missiles which can reach the United States of America soil. One of these missiles even flew over Japan, one of the USA’s major ally. With diplomacy taking a backseat, President Trump via his tweets and the UNGA speech made multiple statements condemning the “The Rocket Man”, a term with which he refers to Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un, and threatened an invasion if the nuclear tests are not stopped by the East Asian Nation.
The series of personal remarks continued from North Korea’s end as well where Supreme Leader called President Trump a Dotard and claimed that America will be met with”fire and fury”. In a recent tweet, President Trump stated that any kind of attempt to negotiate with North Korea was a waste of time and only one thing will work, hinting at an invasion. Officials in North Korea recently accused the United States of using its war on terror as a means to overthrow hostile governments, including an alleged attempt to dethrone Kim Jong Un earlier this year. The Foreign Minister of DPRK announced that the USA has declared war against DPRK and that DPRK has all the rights to shoot down American air force planes anywhere.
Within days after the announcement by North Korea that the USA has declared war on them, a South Korean news Agency claimed that about 5 million North Korean citizens have applied to join the armed forces to fight against the USA. The same shows the amount of hatred the nation shares for the USA. Over this, the latest UN Sanction on DPRK, the worst that has taken place till date aims to cut down the 3 billion USD exports of DPRK by 1 billion USD, a huge amount for the relatively poor nation. The resolution was passed in the UNSC unanimously showing intent from both China and Russia as well, major allies and trading nations of DPRK to go forward with the same. The series of personal remarks
exchanged between President Trump and Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un, the first of its kind
have made this entire conflict look as a personal fight between the two leaders. This situation
reminds of the famous saying by Canadian poet Margaret Atwood, “War is what happens when language fails”. There is no honourable way to kill, no gentle way to destroy. There is nothing good in war except its ending.
– Aman Baldia