Monday, June 10, 2013

I would love for peace to break out between the Koreas...

Two Koreas agree to high-level talks | The Japan Times

Every few years North Korea agitates for attention.  I don't know if the world holds its breath in anticipation of an all-out war on the Korean peninsula, but every time this happens I do.  It makes me nervous.  It's like having an especially troubled family in your neighborhood.  It's bad enough if they're on the corner or three houses down on the cul-de-sac, but we live right across the street from North and South Korea, so to speak.  And Japan isn't exactly tops of the pops with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.  They have a funny tendency to shoot missiles in our direction whenever they remember we're over here.

While I don't have much hope anything of any lasting value will come of these latest talks-- maybe a concession or two to quiet the ruckus for a year or two-- I'd love for these two countries to come to some kind of terms.  Back in 2009, North Korea decided it was no longer bound by the armistice that ended the worst of the fighting in 1953 and started asking for a peace treaty.  I feel the North is sincere in wanting an actual peace treaty, but I don't think they have the political finesse to get it, at least not the way they try.  You know, claiming the right to pre-emptive nuclear strikes, shelling an island here, sinking a destroyer there, reneging on a nuclear agreement, launching intercontinental ballistic missiles.

A huge fear of mine is they'll take it too far one day-- not really intending to ingnite all-out war-- and set Asia on fire.  And like in a cozy little neighborhood, a fire like that is sure to spread from house to house until it burns them all to the ground or someone manages to put it out.  I don't know who these days has the fire-fighting ability to save the neighbors.

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