Closer to war? North Korea scraps 1953 armistice

5.27.2009

"The way to win an atomic war is to make sure it never starts." - Omar Bradley

So North Korea has been behaving very poorly as of late. The North Korean missile launches that have been angering the international community may be the next step toward a full-blown crisis.

For those who don't know, back in 1953 the Korean War ended with an armistice between the two parties, North Korea on one side, and South Korea, the United States, and UN forces on the other side.

Today, amid tensions and under pressure from both South Korea and the U.S., North Korea has decided it will no longer honor the treaty that ended the Korean War 56 years ago.

So does this look like it will be an international crisis? It could be. Underground North Korean nuclear tests have begun, and North Korea has withdrawn from all talks. So it seems as if the deteriorating health of Kim Jong Il is contributing to his irrational behavior.

So let's cross our fingers and hope for a peaceful end to this tension.
If not, Kim should remember the following: giving North Korea the benefit of the doubt, the US outnumbers North Korea's nuclear capacity 940 to 1. Hopefully that will be incentive enough to keep him quiet for a while.