The recent breakdown of relations between North Korea and South Korea, with President Kim Jong-un declaring he no longer recognizes the armistice between the two nations, has put the world on high alert. Anything appears possible now, with CBS News reporting on March 12, 2013, History shows North Korea capable of sudden attack. The lessons of Korean history leave us with the frightening possibility that it may only be a matter of time before North Korea launches a sudden, deadly attack on the South, according to CBS News.
To highlight the urgency of this situation, Seoul has vowed if the North strikes, it will respond with an even stronger blow. After being humiliated by past attacks, South Korea has promised to hit back hard at the next assault from the North, opening up the possibility that a skirmish could turn into a wider war. In response to U.N. sanctions the North Korean army Supreme Command has stated, North Korea "will make a strike of justice at any target anytime as it pleases without limit." Bruce Klingner, a former U.S. intelligence official now at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, has written in a recent think tank posting, the attacks just three years ago from the North "are vivid reminders of the regime's capabilities and intentions."
BBC News has also reported on the new tensions in Korea, South Korea warns North on armistice threat. South Korea has insisted that a unilateral move to end the pact was not legally possible. Along with the armistice threat, North Korea has also in recent days cut off a hotline and vowed to end non-aggression pacts with Seoul. North Korea says it has been responding to US-South Korea military drills and new sanctions which were imposed after its third nuclear test. The two Koreas have remained technically at war because the 1950-53 conflict ended in an armistice, not an actual treaty. It a war erupts in Korea it would most likely be catastrophic for both Koreas and neighboring Asian countries, with further serious problems worldwide from radiation if nuclear weapons are actually used.
