North Korea Cancels Korean War Peace Treaty, Everyone Looks At Each Other Kinda Scared
By Maegan Vazquez
North Korea’s got a lot going for it right now. These days, they’ve got Winnie the Pooh and Dennis Rodman on their side. However, thanks to their recent arms drills, the U.N. is giving them the cold shoulder.
After being provoked by joint drills by South Korea and United States, North Korea decided to hold a few drills of its own. Soon after, the U.N. tightened sanctions on the quasi-communist country, calling the continuation of their nuclear weapons program a “continued violation of UN Security Council resolutions.”
The United States took action, too, adding sanctions against the North Korea Foreign Trade Bank, which supported North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. Essentially, they’ve been cut off a main bank from the U.S. financial system. However, the U.N. sanctions have not deterred the U.S. and South Korea from continuing on with their drills.
The sanctions provoked North Korea to nullify their armistice on Monday, which called a truce on the Korean War. So, yeah, that just happened.
Some of the new sanctions include:
- Condemning the DPRK’s nuclear activities
- Requiring states to freeze or block any financial transaction or financial service that could contribute to North Korea’s illicit programs or the violation of Security Council resolutions.
- Banning the transfer of luxury goods North Korea, including certain kinds of jewelry and precious stones, yachts, luxury automobiles and racing cars.
- Calling on states to deny permission to any aircraft to take off, land in or overfly their territory if the aircraft is suspected of transporting prohibited items.
Since the armistice was nullified, the U.S. and South Korea have continued on with military drills — the U.S. has brought some 2,500 troops and about 10,000 South Korean troops have been a part of the drills. The heated sanctions between North and South has led to the People’s Republic of Korea to start their own drills, too. The tension has caused renewed desire to join the People’s Army.
“All people who can take rifle are petitioning to be allowed to join or rejoin the People’s Army in all provinces and towns,” Rodong Sinmun, official newspaper of North Korea’s Workers’ Party, read on Tuesday. “Send me to the trench. Give me a rifle. I want to rain bullets on the enemy to my heart’s content,” one man told the paper.
In response to the uprise, South Korea’s new president, Park Geun-hye, addressed the country by calling for the protection of Yeonpyeong Island, which was attacked by North Korea in 2010. The attack killed at least two South Korean marines and set dozens of buildings on fire. She also called for the protection of the bordering city of Gaesong, which is one of the few cities linking the two countries. North and South cooperated in order to continue to allow industrial workers to travel to Gaesong.
It is not just normal North Korean citizens who are acting aggressively. According to the Korean Central News Agency, twenty eight-year-old Kim Jong-Un told a group of soldiers:
“ … a guy who is fond of playing with fire is bound to perish in flame…All the enemies quite often playing with fire in the sensitive hotspot should be thrown into a cauldron once I issue an order.”
Uh….
