Taking the Initiative with a Threatening North Korea

Since June 25, 1950, when North Korea, with Soviet and Chinese backing, invaded the South, in an effort to reunify the country, North Korea has been on the offensive. Ever since, the U.S., South Korea, and Japan have been playing defense in a failed attempt to get North Korea to behave. The Korean War ended in 1953, with estimates that 400,000 UN troops, mostly South Korean, were killed or wounded.  U.S. casualties were 54,000 dead and over 100,000 wounded. It is estimated that 3 million civilians were killed.

Since then, North Korea has continued to act recklessly. In 1966, North Korea dispatched a commando team to attack the presidential Blue House in Seoul.  In 1983, North Korea sent a commando team to Rangoon, Burma (now Myanmar), to attack visiting South Korean President Chun Doo Hwan and his delegation, with 21 South Korean officials killed. In 1987, Korean Airlines Flight 858 was bombed in mid-air, with 115 passengers and crew perishing. In 2010, North Korea attacked a South Korean navy vessel, with 46 sailors killed. These are just some of the international terrorist acts that emanated from North Korea. More recently, with the leadership of Kim Jong-un, who succeeded his father in December 2011, a number of domestic acts of savagery have occurred, including the 2013 brutal execution of Kim’s uncle, Jang Song-thaek, and the February 2017 assassination of Kim’s half-brother, Kim Jong-nam, with the use of VX nerve agent in a public area at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.