Global Liability
For the past half-century, North Korea has been the international stress. From the firing of missiles to the recent explosion of the liaison office in Kaesong, North Korea posed repetitive threats, expressing contempt and distress. Alongside these unjust activities, North Korean state media has stated slurs and informal language to describe the international relations and neighboring countries.
Living almost two decades next to this unreliable and unpredictable country, I realized that these threats never had any visual effect. They made the headlines, of course, but after months, there were no changes inside the Korean peninsula except some tense politics.
For the past three years, South Korea President Moon Jae In has taken more of unprecedented steps when dealing with the North Korea Leader Kim Jong Un. Unlike the past presidents, President Moon instead tried to be kinder and more willing to listen to North Korea’s needs. Therefore, there have been more meetings between the two leaders and President Donald Trump in order to lessen the tension in east Asia. Until mid-2019, everything looked to go in the right direction: peaceful conversations. However, news started to state that the relationship has been dwindling due to differences in opinions. Then, the relationship started to worsen and finally led to North Korea’s explosion of the liaison office.
According to the South Korean government, North Korea has been asking for the impossible in return to the eradication of nuclear plants, which tests and builds nuclear weapons. On the other hand, the North Korean government states that South Korea and the United States of America have not withheld their promises.
Personally, the explosion of the liaison office is a signal that it is time to try policies that we have not tried before. Before President Moon, other presidents were resolute in dealing with North Korea. However, that did not go well as North Korea kept firing missiles into the open air. President Moon tried to be kinder, but that also did not go well. After witnessing the activities of North Korea, I now depict North Korea like a little child who cries if angry and becomes greedy if he receives something in favor.
My solution is not to go strong but to go ignorant. Currently, North Korea is reported to have the hardest time in terms of economy since the United Nations has enacted sanctions against North Korea. Even though China is rumored to not follow this sanction completely, North Korea undoubtedly is having one of the hardest times. Therefore, North Korea is urgent to soothe the UN and escape from the sanction in order to export their goods to countries like China and America. For South Korea and the US, they should deal with North Korea as if playing with a young, selfish child. The two governments (South Korea and US) should stop giving attention to the child who asks for impossible and fails to be patient. North Korea is the urgent one who needs to improve the relations, not the other two. If the governments become more ignorant of the repetitive threats, I foresee Kim Jung Un making more logical suggestions.
Of course, we should worry about their possible outgoing actions. They might one day fire a rocket or a missile to the neighboring countries like how they fired on November 23, 2010, at the West territory of South Korea. However, the truth is that the war will not happen. If North Korea starts the war, they violate various international laws. This means that China and Russia lose reason to support them in a possible war. If the war begins, South Korea and America (and possibly Japan) will raid the North Korean territory. When considering the combined military of the two countries, North Korea’s capital will likely be erased, and all the generals or people related to the North Korea government either captured or killed. Considering this outcome, the likelihood of North Korea starting a war or firing a nuclear weapon is extremely low.
The actual Korean war ended a long time ago: no military is throwing bombardments. Since then, many leaders appeared and tried different tactics against North Korea. Many were careful most of the time due to the reason of safety, but if we do not push, there will not be any changes to North Korea’s ruthless threats. Unlike other foreign relations, North Korea has been illogical. If we do not change the tactics now, we might continue witnessing North Korea acting illogically and confounding the international community. We need to ask if we want to leave the problem for our children to solve or whether we should do it right now.
Seokwoo Chung
