Korean Peninsula Tensions Renewed

Reports suggesting the honeymoon phase between North and South Korea is already coming to an end, with the North pulling out of a meeting today with its southern counterparts, threatening to cancel a meet between Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump, something our own political correspondent, Laurentian University’s Dr. Michael Johns says, goes against best interests for the Supreme Leader.

He adds the North Korean government may be threatening to pull out on the summit, but they may not have much choice in the long run.

Threats to nix the summit come over a joint military exercise involving the US and south Korea, something the north sees as provocation. There were promising signs at the beginning of May, as both sides between the North and South demilitarized zone began dismantling propaganda-spewing loudspeakers. It was, at the time, a symbolic gesture following a Korean Summit in late April that saw both sides agree to end hostilities. Dr. Johns thinks Kim Jong Un’s motives are clear.

Military exercises planned between South Korea and The United States will reportedly involve 100 war planes including B-52 bombers and F-15 fighter jets, in a joint exercise deemed “Max Thunder.” While a finger is being pointed these exercises as the reason why the North has pulled out of talks with the south, talks are also hitting a speed bump when it comes to demands that Pyongyang give up its nuclear arsenal. In a statement from the state-run news agency, Kim says “This is not an expression of intention to address the issue through dialogue. It is essentially a manifestation of awfully sinister moves to impose on our dignified state the destiny of Libya or Iraq which had [sic] been collapsed due to yielding the whole of their countries to big powers.”