Since the 2020s, the Korean peninsula has been in a very tense condition. The conflict between the United States and China is getting worse, and North Korea is increasingly unpredictable these days. It is obvious that the Korean peninsula has always been in a tense condition and described as a time bomb that doesn’t know when it’s going to explode. In 2018, an inter-Korean summit was held, expected to lead to the peace of Korea or even to the unification. However, the peace didn’t last long and after a year, North Korea resumed launching missiles. Now the relationship between both Koreas has worsened a lot.
The Korean peninsula has been divided since 1948, after the Soviet Union and the United States came in and claimed to rule Korea again. Establishing whether a capitalist or communist nation in Korea was fought over for a few years and eventually, both capitalism and communism were established in Korea. The Korean War in 1950 made the wound that made Korea not to be unified since that time. After the war, a communist dictatorship government was established in North Korea, while an anti-communist military government was established in South Korea.
After the 1990s, the wind of peace started to affect Korea. When communist nations including the Soviet Union started to collapse, North Korea faced serious economic problems. North Korea determined that they couldn’t solve those problems and considered unification with South Korea. But eventually, they chose a persistent self-defense armed with powerful weapons instead of peaceful unification. Despite many efforts, North Korea these days is more unsociable and more out of control than before.
In 2024, many American experts including Researcher Robert Carlin and Professor Siegfried Hacker at the Middlebury International Laboratory warned that Kim Jung-Un, the leader of North Korea, was determined to cause a war and his provocation with missiles was not a bluff. After the division, North Korea started to call South Korea as “Republic of Korea,” first time, instead of “South Choseon,” which was the name that North Korea called South Korea before. This meant North Korea started to treat South Korea as a completely foreign country, not a part of them. Many experts also said the Korean peninsula is in the most dangerous condition ever since the Korean War.
Knowing the past history, peace and conversation was not a solution against North Korea. Both Koreas had three summits and even neighboring-strong countries encouraged Korea to reconcile. But things always didn’t go well, and this might be the time to prepare for a second war. Lots of people including government people think there are no solutions left for peaceful unification. In 2023, North Korea launched 25 missiles in total. The frequency and number of missiles launched by North Korea are increasing, and many specialists expect they will commit more severe misdeeds. The South Korean and United States governments must keep an eye on North Korea and all South Korean people must have a sense of alarm of war. Seeing the Russian-Ukrainian War and the Israel-Hamas War, the new Cold War has officially begun. It would not be a surprise if a war suddenly breaks out somewhere tomorrow and World War III breaks out. The Korean War also broke out suddenly on Sunday, 4 am, 1950.
By. Jungwoo Choi