South Korea, North Korea--Peacetime is Over

The meeting in Hanoi brought together the ten members of ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, as well as 17 other countries, concerned about recent volatile developments that have sparked controversy.

The sanctions are in answer to, among other brazen North Korean military occurrences, the sinking of a South Korean warship, the Cheonan, which was responsible for the lives of 46 crew members.

In addition to newly acquired sanctions imposed on North Korea, another event about to commence has  Pyongyang, Northern Korea's capital, enraged. War game exercises between the American Navy and South Korea’s forces are scheduled to take place over the upcoming weekend. The North, however, has “demanded” that the exercises not take place as planned, intimating to Washington and the rest of the world that if the “war games” do take place peace in the country will likely be over.

Peace efforts between the North and the South have never been great, even after the two engaged in a bloody civil war between 1950-53. But in light of the recent South Korean torpedoed warship, tension between the two is at an all time high. It should be noted that North Korea continues to claim innocence for the sunken warship, but all fingers point to the alleged perpetrator.

The newly imposed sanctions are leveled directly at North Korea’s dictator Kim Jong II and his ruling class. North Korea is accused of commandeering a “secret regime” and bankrolling the sale and trade of illegal arms and luxury goods with other communist states, which was previously banned by the U.N. The new sanctions will include measures to halt these illegal transactions by putting pressure on the banks that are used as  "laundering facilities" for North Korea and their communist allies.

North Korean spokesman Ri Tong said that this latest show of U.S. involvement in Southern Korea’s affairs is "a direct expression of intensified hostility," reminding the media once again that the U.N. never blamed North Korea for Southern Korea’s torpedoed warship. To make matters worse, since North Korea has vehemently denied any involvement regarding the destroyed warship, retaliation from the U.S., South Korea, or its allies could result in a “nuclear war.” The upcoming war games and the new U.S. sanctions are considered retaliation measures, as far as Pyongyang is concerned.

Even though the U.S. appears as though it is playing “hard ball” with North Korea at this point, Beijing, North Korea’s closest and most powerful ally, did not blame the Cheonan’s hit and destroy mission on North Korea, perhaps influencing the U.N. to not accuse nor blame the North, even though they are the obvious perpetrator. It has even been suggested that China’s past involvement to mediate peace between the communist North and the “free” West will no longer be an option if the “war games” do in fact take place this coming weekend, which is something that the U.S. can ill afford, especially now that tensions are rapidly turning to talks of war.