generalspeaking

Conflict Stress

"Under the situation where a war may break out any moment, there is no need to keep North-South military communications. North-South military communications will be cut off."
Senior North Korean military official

Until such time as South Korea comes to its senses and realizes the turmoil it has brought to the region by offending North Korea with its unacceptable alliance with the United States, they teeter on the brink of war. Another communication hotline sundered. South Korea is required to be humble, to realize the extent of its wrongdoing, halting its "hostile acts" against the North before communication is resumed.

That is, unless it is now too late. The damage done so deeply destroying the trust that existed between the two Koreas that the North cannot see itself through to resuming communication -- for nothing, they are now convinced, is worth relaying between them. South Korea is, simply put, guilty of yet another provocation too far, having tested the patience of the North beyond redemption.

The Red Cross hotline with South Korea was set adrift, and the hotline between the U.S.-led UN command straddling the border between the Koreas cut as well. This latest communication link the last arrow as it were, in the quiver of the North, leaving the situation fraught with haunting echoes of a war machine on the cusp of being unleashed. Perhaps. Perhaps not.

Seoul's Unification Ministry is, if not mystified by yet another paroxysm of deadly rhetoric, at the very least on the defensive; the move characterized as an "unhelpful measure for the safe operation of the Kaesong complex." The Kaesong complex represents one of those attempts on the part of South Korea to give aid and assistance to the North through a production facility offering employment to South Koreans.

It is considered to represent the sole remaining symbol of inter-Korean co-operation. Workers and product shipments are enabled to cross the heavily armed border through their mutual working pact. While the industrial complex employs hundreds of workers from the North, there are also South Korean workers who travel back and forth daily.

With the shut-off of that last hotline, the border as well has been shut tight. Leaving the South Koreans marooned. Effectively, hostages. Another attention-getting manoeuvre at the very least, a ploy to bring the South to its knees to beg forgiveness for its show of hostile force meant to intimidate its neighbour - and, if all is forgiven, the workers can be released.

South Korean officials estimate that roughly 750 South Koreans were present at the Kaesong complex when the border was clamped shut with no prior warning. One South Korean worker reached directly by cellphone seemed more concerned about product delivery than worker safety. "It's all right. I've worked and lived with tension here for eight years now. I'm used to it."

The Kaesong industrial site is operated within North Korean territory. South Korean investment made it possible. And South Korean industrial technology operates the site. Providing hard currency in North Korea, to aid in endemic food shortages leading to the famous chronic malnutrition that has resulted in a population suffering from stunted physical maturity.

The body and its physiology is not alone in suffering from an inadequate diet to permit normal growth. The brain is inextricably affected along with all other bodily organs and functions. That condition alone may explain much. But not about the North Korean elite who have never suffered shortages of anything required for the human organism to prosper.

Labels: Conflict, Controversy, Defence, Health, Human Relations, Hypocrisy, North Korea, Security, South Korea

posted by Pieface @ Thursday, March 28, 2013