Shit hits the fan in Korea
Don't know how many of you have been following the situation there, but things are getting tense.
So a synopsis of events so far:
- In late March, a South Korean corvette sank somewhat mysteriously, killing 46.
- North Korea (who has been in a cold war with the south for over 50 years) denies any involvement.
- In late May, an international investigation finds the cause of the sinking to be a North Korean torpedo fired by a submarine. North Korea still denies it was responsible.
- Since then, the North and the South have severed all economic and political ties (effectively nullifying all the cooperation accomplished in the last decade).
- Both sides have readied their military for war, the South is currently conducting psychological warfare and training exercises in the area where their ship was attacked.
Now the really bad part of all of this is that the South is allied with the US and Japan whereas the North is aligned with China. If a conflict were to break out there is a strong chance that all those countries (and possibly more) would participate.
Be advised, North Korea is NOT some pushover that the West can steamroll like Iraq or Afghanistan. They aren't exactly well equipped but their army is well over one million strong, and if China decides to join on their side, it's anybody's game. The last Korean War ended with around 5 million casualties on all sides. With many Western countries tied up in the Middle-East, this could be really bad news for the Korean peninsula.
Scary stuff.
http://www.nytimes.com/info/north-korea/