I vividly remember my visit to Pusan, South Korea in 1989. It was one of the first foreign ports in my Navy career. The icy cold wind blowing from the mountains seemed the perfect companion to the very real tension in the air. Everywhere I went there was this ominous feeling that even after fifty years of uneasy truce, Korea was still on the front lines.
I’m a little dubious of North Korea’s claim of conducting its first nuke test, but not because I think its not true. I simply don’t think its their first. Back in the early 1990s, a small-scale nuclear test was conducted in China. Though China claimed it was their own, I’ve always wondered if North Korea tested their own device in China to avoid arousing suspicion.
And knowing what I know about international diplomacy, I don’t buy for a moment all the official “condemnations” from various nations. Countries routinely say one thing while doing another. Certainly some of them, perhaps China especially, have benefitted from feeding Kim Jong Il’s obsession with nuclear weapons. North Korea’s need for oil will make it only a matter of time before Iran has their own nukes. Or at least nukes from North Korea.
No one has any easy answers for North Korea. Its a problem left unsolved. Now that nukes are in the mix that problem has just gotten far more difficult.