Written by Matthew Harper. Media by Bobby Williams.
North Korean news agency KCNA has quoted one of the country’s military spokesman as saying that “there is no need to keep north-south military communications” in a time when “war may break out at any moment.” Those military communications between the neighboring nations were the last channel of any sort of communication between them.
The Pentagon, as it seems to do on a weekly basis, condemned North Korea’s actions. Pentagon spokesman George Little said that this was “yet another provocative and unconstructive step” (Reuters). Other recent unconstructive steps included a bizarre video North Korea posted on YouTube showing an imaginary missile strike on United States government buildings—not to be confused with their strange, Call of Duty enhanced New York City attack video from a month or so back—and the recent ordering of rocket and artillery units into “combat posture,” meaning that they would be in place to target bases in Hawaii, Guam, and even the mainland of the United States (BBC News).
The nuclear test that North Korea carried out in early February continues to fuel tension between the nation and nearly the rest of the globe, but especially with South Korea and the United States. BBC’s Lucy Williamson, located in Seoul, South Korea, says that there are large-scale military exercises taking place in North Korea, but it’s still believed that the communist nation is far from being capable of actually carrying out any sort of attack on the United States or any of its allies other than South Korea. This would bring a swift, serious response by not only the U.S., but also much of the rest of the free world.
While the threats continue to emerge from Kim Jong-un and his military, the United Nations plans to look into the many allegations of human rights abuses taking place under the dictator’s command. North Korea, predictably, passed the inquiries off as a “political ploy,” but the resolution to look into the abuses passed the UN council unanimously. BBC News cites the humanitarian group Human Rights Watch as calling the resolution a “landmark step” that can “help expose decades of abuse by the North Korean Government.”
Additionally, the United States continues to show North Korea that it is not afraid of Jong-un’s military. Two stealth bomber practice runs were flown over South Korea on Thursday. A similar run was carried out earlier last week (Reuters). The United States forces in Korea said that the mission “demonstrates the United States’ ability to conduct long-range, precision strikes quickly and at will,” meaning that any harm placed on South Korea by North Korea will not be tolerated and will be dealt with by any necessary means. North Korea, however, continues to threaten its neighbor on a near daily schedule.
