The Korean Peninsula moves past the flash point.

Tribune wire reports

6:28 a.m. CDT, March 31, 2014 
SEOUL 

 
North Korea (click here) fired more than 100 artillery rounds into South Korean waters as part of a drill on Monday, prompting the South to fire back, officials in Seoul said, but the exercise appeared to be more saber rattling from Pyongyang rather than the start of a military standoff.
The North had flagged its intentions to conduct the exercise in response to U.N. condemnation of last week's missile launches by Pyongyang and against what it says are threatening military drills in the South by U.S. forces.
North Korea also accused the South of "gangster-like" behavior at the weekend by "abducting" one of its fishing boats and threatened to retaliate. The South said it had sent the boat back after it drifted into its waters....

North Korea has been at war with South Korea masked as 'military exercises.' North Korea invaded an island and South Korean fishing boats. The military confrontation between the North and South began with the attack on a military ship which cost South Korea 46 lives (click here). It was such a vicious attack the South Koreans had to come to grips with the overt aggressive nature of the new North Korean leader. This is further escalation by North Korea.

 

The disputed maritime border between North and South Korea in the West Sea:

     A: United Nations Command-created Northern Limit Line, 1953

     B: North Korea-declared "Inter-Korean MDL", 1999 The locations of specific islands are reflected in the configuration of each maritime boundary, including

1–Yeonpyeong Island

2–Baengnyeong Island

3–Daecheong Island

This is the Pacific and the tensions that exist between countries that should be more interested in trade than petty arguments over islands too small to be worth the argument. The nuclear capacity in the Pacific is high. There is Russia, China, the USA and North Korea. If these countries engaged a nuclear confrontation the Pacific would be lost to radiation and the waters for any type of fisheries would be gone. Fish from other areas of the world would migrate into empty waters and even spawn as time went by. The presence of fish would result in impoverished people still fishing them. Those people, including those of North Korea, would then experience birth defects, cancers and short longevity. It would be a nightmare. That, besides the deaths and destruction of the landfall of these missiles.

North Korea has nothing to lose. The quality of life of it's people is completely estranged from a civilized society. It is unrecognizable. Wealth is not the forte of North Korea and it's leadership derives it's power from an oppressive dictatorship.

So, what is South Korea to do, except rely on it's ally in the USA to continue to be vigilant and fight for it's borders with conventional warfare. South Korea has to push back. The assault on it's people is becoming obvious. There were no ships struck and no lives lost THIS TIME and let's hope that is where this incursion ends.

By CHOE SANG-HUN

MARCH 31, 2014

 

...disputed western sea border (click here) on Monday, escalating military tensions a day after the North threatened to conduct more nuclear tests.

South Korean officials said the shells from both sides fell harmlessly into waters from which naval and fishing boats had stayed clear. But the exchange of fire marked the most serious episode along the western sea border since an artillery duel there in 2010....