Causes, effects and doctrines are subtle.
Before the sure handed statesman Trump and Kim meet or don't meet in Singapore on June 12, 2018 history needs recalling.
South Korea was no peace-loving democracy before North Korea invaded it in the 1949 (beginning of the Korean War). The invasion followed frequent South Korea vs North Korean border clashes since 1945.
South Korea's leader, the authoritarian Syngman Rhee, killed between 14,000 and 30,000 of his own people during the Jeju uprising in 1948-49 just before the Korean War [1].
In 1950 Rhee had between 100,000 and 200,000 South Korean Bodo League prisoners murdered [2].
North Korea's capital, Pyongyang was bombed flat by the US Air Force during the Korea War. "By the time of the armistice, 75 percent of Pyongyang's area was destroyed by the conventional bombing campaign, which was part of a broader U.S. bombing effort throughout the country costing the lives of between one and three million North Koreans by the time the war ended [3].
Nuclear disarming North Korea, which is China's buffer zone, could bring on World War Three like nothing else.
Before the sure handed statesman Trump and Kim meet or don't meet in Singapore on June 12, 2018 history needs recalling.
Historical mentions of Korea are overlaid by simple moral assumptions:
- North Korea BAD
- South Korea GOOD.
From the North Korean point of view, its status as the most invaded country in the world justifies a nuclear deterrent to prevent regime change and merely conventional destruction. Would Kim disarm on the word of such statesman as Trump and his neocon Pompeo and "Libyan solution"
Bolton? What would stop them?
North Korea Most Invaded?
Bolton? What would stop them?
North Korea Most Invaded?
The territory that is now North Korea has been invaded by the Chinese many times, by Mongolians, Manchus twice, Japanese several times, Russians several times, the US three times, by UN forces (including Australians and British) twice and South Korea twice.
North Korea has a nervous relationship with China and Russia rather than friendly alliances. North Korea realizes it cannot rely on a nuclear protection guarantee from China.
North Korea has a nervous relationship with China and Russia rather than friendly alliances. North Korea realizes it cannot rely on a nuclear protection guarantee from China.
South Korea was no peace-loving democracy before North Korea invaded it in the 1949 (beginning of the Korean War). The invasion followed frequent South Korea vs North Korean border clashes since 1945.
South Korea's leader, the authoritarian Syngman Rhee, killed between 14,000 and 30,000 of his own people during the Jeju uprising in 1948-49 just before the Korean War [1].
In 1950 Rhee had between 100,000 and 200,000 South Korean Bodo League prisoners murdered [2].
North Korea's capital, Pyongyang was bombed flat by the US Air Force during the Korea War. "By the time of the armistice, 75 percent of Pyongyang's area was destroyed by the conventional bombing campaign, which was part of a broader U.S. bombing effort throughout the country costing the lives of between one and three million North Koreans by the time the war ended [3].
Nuclear disarming North Korea, which is China's buffer zone, could bring on World War Three like nothing else.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeju_uprising and subsequent massacre by South Korean troops.