As the banner on our blog reveals, it’s been over 69 years since we’ve had diplomatic relations with North Korea. And we wonder why there is mistrust between our two countries. North Korea does talk with its neighbors, and there is nowhere near the level of animosity between them that there is between them and the US.
China and Russia have proposed a peace plan commonly called the double freeze. The double freeze plan calls for North Korea to halt its nuclear program in exchange for the US and Korea to suspend joint military drills. North Korea has agreed with Russia and China. Germany endorses the plan. The US won’t have anything to do with it.
I don’t understand why cancelling the Team Spirit exercises is a bad trade off to toning down the tensions that could cause World War III. I was talking with a friend the other day and asked him why we even had soldiers stationed in South Korea anymore. He responded with the common answer that our soldiers were a trip wire. Basically a target so that when they died America would feel obligated to respond. He didn’t mean it in a callous way, but more an acknowledgement of our geopolitical strategy.
I do think it’s pretty hideous that we’re willing to sacrifice 20,000 American lives merely to justify a nuclear war with North Korea. Read more here.