“The US has great strength and patience,” But “If it is forced to defend ourselves or our allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea.”
This was the part of the speech given by the president of the United States of America at the 72nd United Nations General Assembly. The president said so because the supreme leader of North Korea Kim Jong-un is continuously threatening the nuclear attack on the USA.
But why North Korea is giving such statements and warning to America and that too without any reason or provocation from the later side?. The answer to this question can only be given by Kim Jong-un but history can also help us to understand the reason(s)(if there is any ).
This is how North Korea come into existence
Korean Peninsula before 1945
Before the year 1945, there was neither North Korea nor South Korea but was a unified country called Korean Peninsula was exist for centuries (1392-1910) under the Joseon Dynasty. But around 1850 influence of Japan started increasing in the Korean Peninsula, as the Japenese wants to increase so by 1910 Japan annexed the region and from then it becomes the colony of Japan till 1945. After the defeat of Japan in World War II, the allied powers thought that they will establish the democracy in the colonies of Japan. But Korean peninsula was not the priority of USA as it was more interested in Germany and USSR took the advantage of this situation and declared war on Japan within 2 days of atomic attack on it and invaded Manchuria region so that they can capture the land which not able to do in Russo- Japanese war (1904-05). and Russia wants that when any other country gets created in that region it should be under the influence of Russia and should follow communism.So after the defeat of Japan in World War II, Russia captured the northern part of the Korean peninsula and USA captured the southern part of the same.
So after the defeat of Japan in World War II, Russia captured the northern part of the Korean peninsula and USA captured the southern part of the same. The plan was to unify the Korea and conduct the election but Russia wants that Korea should follow communism and USA want the capitalism should be the ideology of the Korea and due to this conflict of ideology Korean peninsula was dividing it into half along the 38th parallel to latitude. In this way, North and south Korea come on the map of the world.
In 1948 South Korea declare itself a nation and becomes the Republic of Korea and in 1949 USSR appointed Kim il-Sung as “Great Leader” which later becomes dictator of this northern part which is officially known as Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Why North Korea Hates USA, Japan and South Korea
The current supreme leader of North Korea Kim Jong-Un is not only furious on the USA but also keep threatening the Japan and South Korea. There are many reasons behind it let’s see them one by one
Reason of hatred with JAPAN
At the time when the Korean peninsula was the colony of Japan at that point in time, Japan not only annexed the Korean land but also try to destroy their culture and history and even Japan put the ban on speaking of Korean native language and up to that extent that there was the provision of Death penalty for the person found using Korean language. Exploitation of Korean people on their own land, their environment, the utilization of industrialization only for the purposes of benefiting Japan etc is the reasons why both North and South Korea don’t like Japan.
Scattered Dream of one Korea under communist rule
Border or North and South Korea before and after the Korean war
Actually, North Korea doesn’t to destroy the South Korea but it believes that there should be one Korea and due to this reason the Kim il-Sung the then “Great leader” attacked South Korea 25 June 1950 which ends up in 1953 this war was named as Korean war. During this period of war, there was a time when North Korea has captured 98% of South Korea but at that point, USA helps South Korea and hence destroyed the dream of North Korea.
Reason of Hatred towards the United States America
North Korean hates the USA up to that extent that they taught their children to hate America from the early age, as per my understanding there are majorly 3 reasons because of which North Korea has so much hatred towards the USA
- As we already read that during the colonial period of Japan the life of the Korean people was awful and become bad to worst. Now as the USA is a friend of Japan so due to this North Korean hates it.
- Another and the most important reason is the defeat of North Korea in Korean war of 1950. As the USA supports South Korea was able to manage to defeat the North Korea. Only 3 years long Korean war was catastrophic, in which 3 million people were killed. As per the then head of the Strategic Air command during this war, US killed almost 20% of the North Korean Population. The level of shelling from the US can be understood as during thorough out World War II the US dropped around 503000 tonnes of bombs whereas in Korean war this count went up to 635000 tonnes of bombs. In this war, North Korea was decimated completely. The government of North Korea keep alive the wounds of this war in the mind of its citizens and it is the biggest reason behind their hatred.
- Till now North Korea has done 5 nuclear bomb tests and due to this UN and The USA puts many sanctions on it. Thinking of US behind these sanctions was that if they put sanctions the conditions of the North Korea become worst and the people of the country will revolt against the government but things go against the America and the people keep the USA only responsible for their degrading economy and all other problems due to these sanctions.
So what happens if war breaks out
As per the experts, North Korean missiles are not capable enough to target the USA as of now, but South Korea and Japan are in the direct range of them and if North Korea attacks any of these nations then also the USA will come to help them. But it is not like North Korea don’t have friends, in the war of 1950 when the USA was supporting the South Korea, China and Russia were with North Korea.
China share 1420 Km of the border with North Korea and looking at the current tension China already sent 1,50,000 troops towards the North Korean border.
Because of the below reasons China could support North Korea
- There is a treaty between 2 nations called Sino-North Korean Mutual Aid and Cooperation Friendship Treaty of 1961 according to which if either of the nation is in the state of war then other country have to support the other nation unconditionally. This treaty got renewed in every 20 years and lastly, it renewed in the year 2001.
- If America attacks North Korea than, in that case, millions of refugees will move to China because of such long border and these refugees could be a big problem for China.
- Last reason is the ideology, North Korea is the only country which follow Communism strictly and as China is also a communist nation so due to this China will be in support of it.
Due to the last to point mentioned above Russia can also take part in war from the side of North Korea. So in this war China and Russia will fight from North Korea and South Korea, Japan will be on USA side and due to these major involvement, if this war happens this will be nothing less than a mini-World War III.
Military Power of North Korea
North Korea has the fifth largest army in the world which includes 7.6 million personnel(Active, reserve and paramilitary), it also has missile like wasung 5 and wasung 6 whose range is 1000km, apart from these North Korea also have Missile which is capable of carrying nuclear weapons like Nudong missile whose range is 1300km, Musudan Missile whose range is 3,500km. Currently, it is working on missiles like KN14 and KN08 whose ranges are 10,000 and 11,500 km respectively.
Looking at the military statistics and rambling between the leaders, we can conclude that nuclear catastrophe is in near sight. However, we can hope for the best and let diplomacy do the correct work.
Let's Think about it 