Escalation in Korea

This doesn’t sound good:

“Relations between the north and south have worsened to the point where there is no way or hope of correcting them,” said a statement from the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, the North Korean agency in charge of relations with the South. “They have reached the extreme point where the clash of fire against fire, steel against steel, has become inevitable.”

North Korea has apparently voided the nonagression pacts with South Korea that the two countries have been developing since the 1970s. There are reports that a South Korean navy destroyer has been moved into position on the disputed sea border with the north as the south bolsters its military readiness. North Korea claims to have weaponized enough plutonium to to create four of five nuclear bombs.

Scary as these developments may be, the International Herald Tribune‘s Choe Sang-Hun reminds readers that North Korean threats to “turn South Korea into a “sea of fire” or a “heap of ashes,” are a recurring feature of postwar relations between the two Koreas.”

I feel better already. 

Photo: WON DAI-YEON/AFP/Getty Images