The neighborhood madman
, עודכן
North Korea raised the stakes on Thursday for the umpteenth time. The regime in Pyongyang is now threatening a preemptive nuclear attack against the United States, as a preventive measure in the wake of joint U.S.-South Korea military exercises. It is safe to assume that North Korea will not really carry out an attack, but its nuclear capabilities distinctly strengthen the country's rhetoric.
Something no less important happened on Thursday in the United Nations Security Council, even though sanctions against North Korea are not a new thing. Just like Iran, in North Korea's case we also have a long history of sanctions, starting as early as 2006 following North Korea's first nuclear test. The important thing is that the new sanctions are being levied in the era of Kim Jong-un, the new young leader who refuses to accept even China's embrace.
Beijing joined the international community on Thursday, mainly because of its anger that it is no longer in on North Korea's secrets. Beijing was not notified in advance about North Korea's ballistic missile test in December, nor did it know about the third nuclear test on Feb. 12. Kim Jong-un has not yet accepted an invitation to visit China. North Korea decries everything. Sanctions? Rounds of talks? Don't make North Korea laugh.
The combination of a voluntarily isolated regime, a complete disregard for human rights and nuclear capabilities, despite U.S. promises once upon a time to prevent nuclear development, is causing North Korea to act like the neighborhood madman. I would hate to be South Korea with such a neighbor to the north. Moreover, Pyongyang announced on Tuesday that it had officially scrapped the armistice agreement that ended the Korean War in 1953. The northerners are putting pressure on Seoul.
In any other era, we would follow this story as if it were something happening extremely far away and does not concern us in any way. But in today's global village, if North Korea sneezes, we all catch a cold.
We have our own North Korea right here in our neighborhood too we call it Iran. If anyone thought that the radical ayatollahs' rants were just rhetoric, just wait for the day, God forbid, that they have nuclear capability. If only there was just one crazy regime in the world.
