On December 17, 2010 the North Korean official news agency KCNA issued a warning that they will launch more attacks if South Korea proceeds with its planned military exercises, “The strike will play out a more serious situation than on November 23 in terms of the strength and scope of the strike.” That strike killed four civilians living on Yeonpyeong island.
Uriminzokkiri, the official website of the communist state, said that war was only a matter of time, “Because of the South Koreans’ reckless war policies, it is not about war or peace on the Korean peninsula but when the war will break out,” and further they declared that “If war breaks out, it will lead to nuclear warfare and not be limited to the Korean peninsula.”
Their increasingly bellicose pronouncements, including the threat of a nuclear war, make it clear that a long term solution on the Korean peninsula requires that either the South Korean border be extended to the Yalu River or the Chinese border be extended to the 38th parallel. I’m not sure I care which. Given the sorry state of the North Korean economy I suspect that both South Korea and China would each prefer it be the other.
