Today North Korea conducted a test of their ballistic missiles, firing a total of 7 missiles including one long range missile capable of reaching the United States.
North Korea went ahead with their missile test among strong oppositions from various nations; including Japan and United States who openly threaten sanctions.
After the test Japan and United States together drafted a plan for the <abbr title=”United Nations”>UN</abbr> Security Council to impose economical sanctions on North Korea. North Korea in turn responded by saying, “… any sanctions imposed by UN will be responded with equally severe actions.”.
What I do not understand is, “… equally severe actions.”, what do they mean by that? It is not that anyone of the nations against North Korea’s testing needs anything from them. Particularly not Japan nor United States. The only “equally severe” action I can think of is to expel nationals of these countries from North Korea.
Given the unstable conditions in North Korea, it is already not a good idea for any foreigners to be in North Korea.
It appears that North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-il is just trying to hold the world hostage demanding ransom in the form of aids from foreign nations.
North Korea being one of the poorest nations, with one of the world’s largest army and majority of its citizens starving, could have reached its last straw. Forcing it to use drastic scare tactics to achieve its goals of strong arming aids and supports from foreign nations. Whether North Korea truly have the technologies to create nuclear weapons or missiles that can reach the United States are still questionable. With the United States recent intelligence track records (Iraq and Bin Laden), United States claims on North Korea may be taken with a grain of salt.
I definitely do not call myself a political expert, bullying others into getting ones way may work in other situations, but in politics it is a very dangerous game to play.
Technorati Tags: missile, North Korea, nuclear