Showing posts with label North Korea. Show all posts
Showing posts with label North Korea. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Another Korean War – But This One IS Different

Today, North Korea’s leaders have stopped talking to their counterparts in South Korea, because of alleged intrusions by the South Korean Navy in North Korean waters.

Ironically, it was North Korea’s Committee for Peaceful Reunification of Korea which made the announcement.

For most of this year and part of last year, American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been outspoken in her bid to unite the two countries peacefully.
That’ll never happen.

Not just because the north falls under the Communistic idealism which conflicts with the views of a more open Capitalistic south, but because of politics of another sort.

America’s relationship with North Korea has always been on shaking ground – from as far back as the Kennedy Administration to present. That’s a long time to hold a grudge.

And a grudge it is – North Korea sees attacks on the south as an attack against an American ally, which is why so long as an American politician is leading the way towards unification – it’ll never happen.

Although U.S. Secretary of State Clinton’s heart may be in the right place, her mind must be elsewhere. Because as long as she’s at the head of the peace talks, the two sides will grow ever further apart.

Yesterday she made matters worse, be admitting her country’s stance, saying that America’s “support for South Korea’s defense is unequivocal,” and that North Korea should “stop its belligerence and threatening behavior.”

This threat by the American politician came after South Korean President Lee Myung-bak announced his country was suspending trade with North Korea, closing their waterways to North Korean ships, and adopting a more aggressive military posture.

All of this sounds like anything but peace – if anything it looks more like the prelude to war.

Although outside representatives should be present to arbitrate the tensions between the two opposing factions, American politicians need to step back from the situation, as their presence is only adding to the tensions, with their support already firmly seated in the south.

The United Nations must move in, first with a peace envoy – who isn’t American – to try to quash the war before it begins.

Failing that, the UN will need to take sides, and put an end to a war, before it gets out of hand.

North Korea has been testing nuclear weapons – and although everyone knows the dangers to the planet of launching such massively potent weapons, their rulers don’t have the patience which the American and Soviet leaders had during the Cold War.

So a war between the north and the south could be truly catastrophic, sending nuclear material into our atmosphere, destroying populations far outside the warring nation’s battle grounds.

Which makes it all the more important that the Americans get out of the discourse, because their presence is just making matters worse. And when a country has it’s fingers on “the button” worse isn’t where you want to go.



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Saturday, October 10, 2009

Nobel Peace Prize Awarded to Obama Questionable

American President Barack Obama has won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize, less than a year into his presidential mandate.

Granted, President Obama has some innovative ideas, was the first black person to ever lead the States, and has inspired greatness in others the world over.

But President Obama hasn’t been in office long enough to garner success – or failure – in implementing those

WASHINGTON - OCTOBER 09:  U.S. President Barac...Image by Getty Images via Daylife

innovative ideas, so the Norwegian-based Nobel Peace Prize Committee must be smoking some pretty good stuff to have given him the honor.

And there is more to that honor than just a piece of paper with his name on it – the Nobel Peace Prize comes with a medal, a diploma and a nice chunk of coin -- $1.5USD million to be exact.

The Nobel Institute in Oslo, Norway.Image via Wikipedia


As of this writing, President Obama hasn’t said what he intends to do with the prize money, which could prove quite the challenge in light of what the Nobel Peace Prize represents.

The founder of the Nobel Peace Prize, Alfred Nobel, described the whole thing nicely in his last will and testament, saying the award should go to whoever: “shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congress.”

President Obama is leading a country involved in two wars – Afghanistan and Iraq. And a third war is potentially brewing between America and North Korea over the North Korean government’s constant threat of developing and testing nuclear missiles.

Whenever the American leader has gone abroad on his worldly trips, he has talked about peace, and opening up relations between nations – especially between his nation and others around the globe. Though this is a given, you don’t go into someone’s home, push them up against a wall holding a knife to their neck and telling them how things are going to shake down.

Well, maybe you would do that, if you were President George W. Bush . . . but seriously, when a country’s leader goes to another nation, their first order of business is always to maintain or foster good relations with the hosting nati

WASHINGTON - OCTOBER 09:  U.S. President Barac...Image by Getty Images via Daylife

on.
That’s just good politics.

Though it is even more important in President Obama’s international politics, because his predecessor managed to alienate, offend, and create large rifts between America and other nations.

And speaking of rifts between nations, although President Obama didn’t instigate the wars in Afghanistan or Iraq – he hasn’t exactly gone out of his way to immediately attempt a peaceful resolution to either of these war zones either.

Why is it then, that he won the Nobel Peace Prize?

The prize committee claims President Obama’s extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy between nations, as the reason.

However, has President Obama really accomplished this?

He hasn’t ended any wars. He did close down the American military prison in Guantanamo Bay, which was known for its inhumane treatment of inmates – but that hardly counts as strengthening international diplomacy between nations.

President Obama hasn’t brought peace to the Middle East – though truthfully, both sides in that long battle are so diametrically opposed to each other philosophically, socially, spiritually, politically and economically, there will never be peace in that region of the world.

Instead, President Obama continues to send troops to Afghanistan and Iraq to police those nations, instead of sending in diplomats and working to end the violence while bringing about peace.

President Obama has clearly threatened North Korea with possible military action if they continue to develop and test nuclear weapons.

And for a man supposedly so peaceful, he’s got his own army protectin

g him from the dangerous world in which we live. His motorcade consists not only of an alternative duplicate of him and his armored limo (nicknamed “the beast”), but high tech armored vehicles, which block cell phone signals in the area as he passes. When he came to Canada, they had snipers on rooftops all along his route from the airport to Parliament Hill in Ottawa. They even ordered people whose high-rise apartments and condos draped the route, not to go out on their balconies, or else they would be shot – even if all they wanted to do was to sneak a peek at the American president.

Surely a man of peace should have nothing to fear, and not need the protection of an armed motorcade?

Though that in of itself may be the real reason the Nobel Peace Prize Committee bestowed such an honor on this man.

Being the first black American president, and being as outspoken and radically different from past American presidents puts President Obama at a greater risk of life and limb than his predecessors.

Perhaps the Nobel Peace Prize Committee wanted to give President Obama the award before any attempts were made on the president’s life?

Although the American leader talks about peace, he hasn’t done anything to justify such a prestigious award. And that taints the reputation of the award, the prize committee which decides who receives the award, and far worse – lessens the chances that future world leaders will really work towards peace.

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Friday, June 19, 2009

Cold War Replay -- But This Time The Risk Is Real

Movies, as they often do, reflect the mood and public perception of the time. There’s a great scene in the 1983 movie War Games, with a very young Mathew Broderick and Alley Sheedy, trying to convince the reclusive inventor (played by John Wood) that his computer isn’t playing a simulated war game, but actually is calculating real missile launch trajectories to win a nuclear war.

It isn’t until Broderick’s character teaches the computer how to play Checkers that the computer realizes, just as in a game of Checkers; no one would ever win a nuclear war.

Problem is North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-il doesn’t appear to understand this concept, as his continued nuclear missile tests form the basis for a new Cold War.

Kim Jong-ilImage via Wikipedia


Yesterday, the Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Daily reported that North Korea had long-range nuclear missiles which they are going to be test firing towards Hawaii between July 4 and July 8.

Ironic, just as Americans will be lighting fireworks to celebrate their nation’s birth on the Fourth of July, North Korea may be sending off their own version of a firework – only this one has a long-range Taepodong-2 type nuclear warhead, which has a range of up to 6,500 KM (about 4,039 miles.)

Politicians and diplomats from Russia and China are trying to open a dialogue with North Korea, to stop the continued tests, but talk appears to be cheap. The sanctions by the United Nations Security Council imposed after the last North Korean nuclear rocket launch on May 25 don’t seem to be working.

Japan is particularly concerned, as any rockets fired towards Hawaii must pass over them – posing a grave risk to all inhabitants should th

PYONGYANG, NORTH KOREA - OCTOBER 3: South Kore...Image by Getty Images via Daylife

e missile fail to reach its destination.

The country’s leader Kim Jong-il isn’t worrying about the risks associated with these nuclear missile tests.

And here lies the real risk – Jong-il’s lack of concern for the people in the countries around him – or even perhaps for his own citizens -- makes him a very dangerous person.

The real “war” in the Cold War of the 1980’s was a war of words. Each side would verbally threaten the other through use of the mainstream media. Messages were sent by each side, threatening to use nuclear weapons – but in the end, thankfully both the “Ruskies” and the Americans were smart enough to realize the consequences of launching an all-out nuclear war.

Jong-il’s war isn’t one of words, but of actions. The more global leaders talk of sanctions, and diplomats attempt to cool the tensions with discussions and dialogue, the more nuclear missile tests North Korea conducts and the more nuclear-grade weapon materials North Korea produces.

However, when you’ve got nuclear weapons of mass destruction – and you can’t get more massively destructive than a nuclear blast – actions are not the wisest thing to take.

Stronger measures must be taken against North Korea’s nuclear missile program by all world leaders. The United Nations is on the right track, but something more must be done. Otherwise, the face of planet Earth may one day be as barren as Mars. And we have yet to find life on Mars.

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