North Korea likes to threaten the United States and South Korea; this is common knowledge. It’s their baseball. Yet, every threat from the extremely isolated nations sets off alarms, which is the case currently.
As annual “Foal Eagle” join exercises between the U.S. and South Korea approach, the North is again trying to flex its unimpressive muscles. In the past the country has threatened to destroy both Seoul and Washington D.C. if the drills were not cancelled. As anyone who doesn’t live in a cave knows, they have not made good on those threats.
You may ask, what has them up in exaggerated arms this time? As Northern official Rodong Sinmun puts its, “It is the strategic goal of the US to invade the DPRK, bring its neighboring countries under its control with it as a stepping-stone and, furthermore, dominate the whole Asia-Pacific region.” Yeah. Sure.
The reason the threats are being treated with such disregard is because both countries have heard it all before and no action was taken by the North. The drills in question take place every year and see no opposition from the DPRK. Despite all of the flexing and talking the exercises go off without a hitch and ruling party loses a little bit more credibility, something which seems to be in short supply what with all of the Dennis Rodman visits.
Another major reason the countries cannot compromise about the exercises is the DPRK’s unwillingness to dismantle its nuclear program, which is the only real ace it has up its sleeve. Until such a time, it is unlikely that any real talks will take place between the three powers.
[Image via YouTube]