Three Reasons To Watch North Korea
Kevin Felts 01.02.18
North Korea has been in and out of the news since the 1940s. Things seemed to have reached a head between 1950-1953 when the United States and China entered the conflict between North and South Korea. Eventually a ceasefire was reached and there has been an uneasy peace on the Korean Peninsula. However, all good things must come to an end, and that includes the ceasefire.
Kim Jong-un, the supreme leader of North Korea, has been ratcheting up North Korea’s military technology and with it, global tensions.
Unless someone was born yesterday or has an aversion to the news, everything mentioned above should be common knowledge. However, there has been some worrying news that came out at the end of 2017 that may have been overlooked.
Let’s take a few minutes and look at the North Korea situation as a whole.
Nuclear Weapons
North Korea is under international sanctions. Those sanctions have had little or no effect in slowing down its nuclear weapons program. Their technology has reached a point to where North Korea should soon be able to attach a nuclear device to an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). Estimates as of 2017 put the ICBM range close to reaching California.
Their nuclear program has come at a steep price. Part of the mountain where the nuclear devices are tested collapsed. The collapse may of set the program back a little bit, but the real worry is nuclear contamination of southeast Asia.
Reports are coming out of North Korea describing how the testing area is a dead zone where nothing grows, not even trees. If the mountain were to collapse, and debris thrown into the atmosphere, North Korea could be turned into a nuclear wasteland. The fallout would pose a threat to all of southeast Asia.
Anthrax
A recent revelation came out around the end of 2017; a defector from North Korea tested positive for anthrax anti-bodies.
FoxNews reported – North Korea begins testing mounting anthrax onto ICBMs.
North Korea is beginning tests on mounting anthrax onto intercontinental ballistic missiles that would strike the U.S., a report said on Wednesday just two days after the White House’s U.S. National Security Strategy stated Kim Jong Un is pursuing chemical and biological weapons.
As if nuclear weapons were not enough to worry about, now North Korea is developing chemical weapons that could be mounted on an ICBM.
Sanctions Violations
One of the most worrying revelations is Russia was caught supplying North Korea with fuel.
From Reuters – Exclusive: Russian tankers fueled North Korea via transfers at sea – sources.
LONDON/MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian tankers have supplied fuel to North Korea on at least three occasions in recent months by transferring cargoes at sea, according to two senior Western European security sources, providing an economic lifeline to the secretive Communist state.
The sale was a direction violation of United Nations sanctions. If Russia is selling fuel to North Korea, what else is being sold to the rogue nation?
Final Thoughts
It seems the situation on the Korean Peninsula gets a little more tense with every passing month. In all honestly, how is the world supposed to curb nuclear and chemical weapons development when other nations are providing assistance?
Sooner or later something will have to give.
