Expat Jane wonders whether North Korea is making noise about testing a nuclear weapon to detract from the likely nomination of South Korea’s Ban Ki-Moon as its next Secretary General.
Whenever South Korea is doing well or is making positive strides the North makes noise to take from their achievement it seems. The good thing is it doesn’t matter at this point. If you didn’t know, both North and South Korea joined the UN in September of 1991.
If so, she adds, it would be pretty much par for the course.
South Koreans forget this, but the North tried to take away South Korea’s glory during the 2002 World Cup. Good for me, David Scofield remembered when he wrote N Korea’s military edge over S Korea:
In the closing days of the World Cup competition in 2002, a North Korean naval vessel attacked and sank a South Korean navy ship inside South Korean territorial waters. Two years later, not one politician from either the ruling or opposition camps attended the memorial for the six South Korean sailors who perished, and most of the nation’s media outlets relegated the story to the back pages, if they covered it at all.
Some other past examples:
- Feb 25, 2003: North Korea test fires a short-range cruise missile. The test comes hours before the inauguration of South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun, with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and other international guests in Seoul for the event. Powell says the test is “fairly innocuous” but the White House calls it diplomatic extortion, aimed at forcing a compromise in the stand-off over Pyongyang’s suspected nuclear program.
- August 31, 1998 - North Korea test fires its Taepodong-1 missile, its first test in five years and fourth since 1984. The test comes as the United States and North Korea are 10 days into sporadic talks in New York about the North’s nuclear program, and ahead a September congress that confirms leader Kim Jong-il as holding the highest office of state.
- November 1987 - North Korean agents blow up a Korean Air passenger jet, killing 115 people, in what South Korea says is an attempt to disrupt Seoul’s hosting of the 1988 Summer Olympics.
The entire post is well worth heading over and checking out when you have the time.
{ 1 comment }
MigukNamja 10.09.06 at 4:19 pm
It is indeed disgusting how the petty ego of one megalomaniacal man, Kim Jong Il, is causing so much trouble for South Korea and the entire region. It seems he is very jealous of his ribal sibling to the South.
It’s even more shameful how this one man and his inner circle are holding an entire country (North Korea) hostage under his rule. It is very saddening the depths of depravity human beings are capable of inflicting upon others.
Emotion asides, the South Korean and Chinese governments should each grow a spine and stop kow-towing to their illogical dictator neighbor. The South Korean and Chinese appeasement of Kim Jong Il is only as food for the monster. Kim Jong Il will not voluntarily diminish his power. So, the best way to contain the damage is to hold a firm line.
I’m not advocating an aggressive, gun-waving “Axis of Evil” stance towards North Korea as the U.S. currently has and Japan is moving towards. This will only further bolster North Korea’s billigerent stance. At the same time, I think the U.S. should maintain its economic sanctions and South Korea and China should suspend all economic freebies until dear old Kim shows some respect for his neighbors. Lobbing missiles and threatening to test nuclear weapons is most disrespectful.
Comments on this entry are closed.