South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol warned on Wednesday that his country and its allies “will not stand idly by” if North Korea receives Russian help to boost its weapons of mass destruction – just days after the leaders of the two nuclear-armed nations held a closely watched summit.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un traveled to Russia last week for a meeting with President Vladimir Putin. Ahead of the meeting US officials warned that the two leaders could strike a deal that would provide weapons for Moscow to use in its grueling war against Ukraine – and that could see sanction-hit Pyongyang gain access to vital Russian technology.
Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Yoon declared: “While military strength may vary among countries, by uniting in unwavering solidarity and steadfastly adhering to our principles, we can deter any unlawful provocation.”
He also called to reform the UN Security Council – of which Russia is a member – saying such a move “would receive a broad support” if Moscow did supply Pyongyang with information in exchange for weapons.
“It is paradoxical that a permanent member of the UN Security Council, entrusted as the ultimate guardian of world peace, would wage war by invading another sovereign nation and receive arms and ammunition from a regime that blatantly violates UN Security Council resolutions,” Yoon said.
Why?
We’ve pretty much been at war nonstop since WWII.
They just called it the cold war.
Cooler heads have prevailed, for the most part, for a long time. The shock and awe overwhelming force doctrine has worked when we needed it. There’s questions on if it will work on a near peer in a new battle space featuring Internet, space, drones, and unconventional warfare.
It’s likely a near peer would target our water and power infrastructure with hacks. It’s possible many civilians could die without even using nuclear weapons from that. It’s possible the Internet would never be the same afterwards.
But so far cooler heads have prevailed. The military industrial complex might be great at extracting tax dollars but the idea is that all that spending will work to prevent WWIII by being prepared to fight it.
We might have to fight that war one day. Why worry? We spend plenty of money to be prepared to do so.