The handshake in Singapore between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un marked a radical shift in US policy towards North Korea. It was an unfamiliar scene, indeed. For more than 70 years, US and North Korea have been in armed stand-off. During the summit Kim is reported to have told Trump: “Many people will think of this as a form of fantasy… a science-fiction movie.” While the US president declared, “We have developed a very special bond.”
It is important that we remember the war that created the belligerent North Korean regime, writes John Newsinger, and that Britain's Labour government supported it at the time, though the public didn't.
The threat that Donald Trump made at the United Nations to “totally destroy” North Korea should not be dismissed, not least because in the early 1950s another US president, Harry Truman, actually did destroy North Korea. Moreover, the destruction of the country was carried out with the full support of the UN, indeed on behalf of the UN.
US aerial bombardment literally laid the country waste. This crime was perpetrated when there was a sensible moderate Democrat in the White House rather than a pathological right wing narcissist.
North Korea’s latest ballistic missile tests prompted US president Donald Trump to respond with threats of “fire and fury”. The heightened state of tension in the Korean peninsula is unlikely to lead to an immediate war. However, it is certain to add to the instability in the region, at the root of which lies growing rivalry and bickering among imperialist powers.
The increasing tensions on the Korean peninsula over the last few months have brought a renewed sense of insecurity to many in the region. The two Koreas are no strangers to these sorts of tensions, but this time the crisis has prompted some to make comparisons with the Cuban missile crisis of 1962.
On 30 March, North Korea even announced that "inter-Korean relations are in a state of war" and later claimed that it would restart its suspended nuclear enrichment facility at Yongbyon. Many commentators have also speculated that North Korea would launch a ballistic missile or carry out a fourth nuclear test.
The recent artillery exchanges in the Korean peninsula come after a period of escalating tension in the region, reports Kim Ha-young.
At the end of November, North Korea fired artillery shells into Yeonpyeong Island, South Korea, killing four people, including two innocent civilians. It is claimed that South Korea retaliated with its own artillery, resulting in major damage to North Korea. A North Korean broadcast reported, "The enemy fired artillery shells indiscriminately, even to residential areas."
