The Student News Website of Susquehannock High School,   Glen Rock, Pennsylvania.

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The Student News Website of Susquehannock High School,   Glen Rock, Pennsylvania.

SHS Courier

The Student News Website of Susquehannock High School,   Glen Rock, Pennsylvania.

SHS Courier

North Korea makes ‘new’ old threats

North Korea and their leader, Kim Jong-Un, have made several movements over the past few weeks towards both South Korea and the United States that have many experts worried about the possibility of a nuclear attack.
CNN explains that some of the most concerning actions include an announcement to reopen North Korea’s (NK) nuclear reactor, the closing of the South Korean border, and a threat to attack the United States.
Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, has also called an end to the armistice agreement from the Korean War, and considers itself to be in a state of war.
NK has had unstable relations with South Korea and the United States since the end of the Korean War in 1953. But the sudden increase in hostility is surprising, especially since SK and the US have such a heavy impact on the their economy.
The New York Times paints SK as being considerably more prosperous, and democratic, than NK. In 2004, SK coordinated with NK to start an industrial manufacturing project in NK. The Kaesong Industrial Park is owned by South Korean leaders, but employs around 53,000 North Koreans. Even further, NK depends on American currency.
So what could NK hope to gain from threatening one of the most powerful countries in the world with a nuclear attack?
Junior Brandon Loehmer thinks it could be a show of authority.”[I think that North Korea] wants to be acknowledged as a world power,” said Loehmer.
Additionally, it is commonly thought that NK does not have the technology to fire a nuclear warhead all the way to the US, and the New York Times published that the US “signed an agreement to respond jointly to North Korea provocations [with South Korea.]”
So, a nuclear attack on South Korea will be treated as an attack on the US. Though some do not think NK has the technology to launch a nuclear war, Social Studies teacher Bill Kerr is worried.
“One of my biggest concerns is that NK has more technology than experts think. Look at the [“WMD’s” in Iraq], they have been wrong before,” said Kerr.
Another of Kerr’s concerns is China. While Kerr believes Un is more aggressive than his father and predecessor, Kim Jong-Il, Kerr does not feel that NK is a threat on its own. Kerr and Loehmer both agree that the situation could become much more serious if China, a superpower, gets involved.
That being said, Kerr still thinks that it does not make sense for North Korea to start a nuclear war.“I don’t think [a nuclear war] makes sense. I think they are depending on China to support them,” said Kerr.
As the Wall Street Journal explains it, China shows no signs of siding with NK. China’s president disavows North Korea’s actions and disapproves of their use of nuclear war for “selfish gains.”

Sources:
-Fox.news
-NYT.com
-Online.wsj.com
-CNN.com

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North Korea makes ‘new’ old threats