Recent events in Korea.

I put some background information on another page that went into a little detail, which I got from Wikipedia, about Yeonpyeong Island.

North Korea tends, due to the unstable nature of it leaders, to belligerence. Their attitude toward the South is that the North should take control. North Korean forces kidnap citizens from the South in a continued effort to get them to spy for the North. While I was stationed at Osan, AB from 1977-1978 there were several incident where North Korean “skunk boat” were intercepted after having dropped off South Koreans who were supposed to spy for them, only to discover that these, supposed spy’s, had notified South Korean military authorities.

Durring my time in Korea, the NK continued to do such things as: burrowing under the DMZ, in case of a invasion they could come up behind the ROK troops, fireing across the DMZ, and the already mentioned kidnapping of ROK citizens. One thing they did do that was interesting was the NK government started a program to allow NK citizens to meet, in Japan, with relatives from the ROK. This was an effort go have their citizens covince family member to spy for the North. This often resulted in the NK citizens actually being subverted by their families from the ROK. I do now know it the program is still in effect.

I mentioned the “skunk boats”, or NK spy boats, that would penetrate far into ROK waters. Once in a while these boats would be intercepted, and sunk, at which point the NK government would accuse the ROK of attacking “unarmed fishing boats that had wandered into ROK territory”. This was often done despite the skunk boat having been involved in gunbattles with ROK forces that would result in the sinking of the skunk boat. At least once, while I was in Korea, I knew of U.S. Air Force Pararesuce troops being dispatched to pull NK spy personel out of the water. The Air Rescue people went armed for the simple reason that, inspite of the risking their live to pull these people out of the water, they would sometimes be greeted, as they dangled on the end of a rope, by weapons fire from the people in the water, and so would have to be able to defend themselves.

NK make threat agains the world at large on a regular basis and these are mostly ignored as just bluster. It seems that much of what they do is with the thought that China will protect them such as when China invaded, durring the Korean War 1950-1953, when U. N. Command forces went past the 38th Parralel. For China, much like the old Soviet Union, there was a desire to have countries on the border that were not hostile, as both China and Russia share some border space with NK.

At the time I am writting this it seems that China is making some efforts to help contain the threat to regonal peace. It is uncertain what steps China will take… If push came to shove will they go to war for NK? Would they seize control of NK? or would they just abandon them to stew in their own pot?

I have been told that China, being a large holder of American debt, would dump it’s holdig of Dollars. The would cause a devaluation of the Dollar but, it would also mean that Americans would have to pay more for item coming out of China, and it is possible that this would stiffle the flow of Dollars into China’s coffers. This is a simpleistic thought but, could it effect the people who make their policy?
Does loseing money matter that much to them.
It has been said that most, if not all, wars are a matter of econemy.
This is My View, by Joe.