North Korea Blinks

The Hermit Kingdom blinked as South Korea carried out its scheduled artillery drills from Yeonpyeong Island that lies near the border of the two nations.  North Korea had issued multiple threats of retaliation in the lead up to the artillery drills.  The UN could not agree on a resolution to defuse tensions as the threats were lobbed back and forth.

The WSJ reports: "South Korea's military went on high alert during the 94-minute drill, which took place on the Yellow Sea island of Yeonpyeong—a South Korean island in disputed waters that was the target of a deadly North Korean artillery attack last month. Fighter jets patrolled the air and destroyers sailed in nearby waters ready to counter another North Korean attack."

South Korea's military, while numerically inferior, is far superior technologically.  Any North Korean aggression would have resulted in devastating attacks from South Korea's air force and artillery.  The danger lay in escalating responses from each nation that could have led to the cold peace turning into hot war.

While North Korea has carried out nuclear tests in the past and continues development of nuclear weapons, it is doubtful whether North Korea could successfully deliver a nuclear weapon onto a target.  It is one thing to detonate a nuke, but quite another to put it on a missile, plane, or submarine and successfully detonate it over a target under war conditions.

Any such nuclear strike would undoubtedly lead to a massive nuclear retaliation by the United States in defense of South Korea.  Certainly, even an atheist nation like North Korea would consider what the afterlife might bring when nukes are in the equation.

For now, North Korea has backed down, but it will certainly become troublesome when it needs more aid and humanitarian supplies over the winter as its oppressed population faced winter and starvation yet again.