Kim Pushes South Korea to the Brink

North Korea's torpedoing of a South Korean warship cannot be viewed as accidental or a mere mistake. In the past, such aggression would be enough to warrant going to war.

The Korean owner of the variety store in Wellington, Ontario some 15 kilometers west of Picton, asked when I bought newspapers the other day: “What do you think of Korea?

I was puzzled. I admire the South and view the North as an abomination.

“No,” he said. “Do you think they will go to war?”

He was genuinely concerned, while I tended to be dismissive. With family in South Korea, he was right. I was wrong to view it as more lunacy from Kim Jong Il.

Last week, an international investigation established that a South Korean warship that sank last March, causing the death of 46 sailors, had been torpedoed by a North Korean submarine.

In the past, such an act of deliberate aggression would be enough to warrant going to war. Germany sinking the passenger ship Lusitania in 1915 hastened America’s entry into WWI.

Torpedoing another country’s warship in times of peace cannot be viewed as accidental or a mere mistake. If a mistake, where is the court martial of the submarine’s captain? Where is the apology from the North Korean government? Where, indeed, is any evidence of regret on the part of Pyongyang?

Instead, Kim Jong Il declared that he and his indoctrinated regime no longer feel obliged to honor the 1953 armistice that ended the Korean war. It was not “peace” after 1953, but a “truce,” which presumably can be broken or rescinded at any time.

South Korea’s President Lee Myung-bak has shown restraint, which shouldn’t be interpreted as fearfulness. He has addressed the nation -- no longer would the South tolerate the North’s “brutality.” Lee announced a blockade of North Korean ships “in waters under our control,” and suspended trade and exchanges.

Humanitarian aid should also be stopped, since it gets diverted to the army.

Lee demanded an apology and punishment for those responsible for the incident. “It’s now time for the North Korean regime to change,” he said. For 60 years North Korea has stagnated under aggressive communism and today is “the most belligerent regime in the world.”

He warned that the South “will not tolerate any provocative act” but will “immediately exercise our right of self-defense.” Tough, but still restrained. The torpedoing also demands a response from the UN Security Council – insipid as that response often is.

North Korea is a country without real friends. China is embarrassed by it; Russia wants no part of it. North Korea’s testing of rockets, missiles and nuclear weapons is blackmail. Kim Jong Il’s health is reportedly fragile, and the world is waiting for him to die, anticipating changes after that happy event.

The North has a huge, robot-like army – but no oil or resources to wage war. Nor is South Korea the impoverished entity it was when Kim Jong Il’s dad, Kim Il Sung invaded in 1950 - at the instigation of Stalin and the Soviet Union.

Times have changed. South Korea is a beacon of progress and democracy. Mindful of Israel in the Mideast, South Korea constantly tries to improve relations with its enemy, but is ever-thwarted by aggressive acts.

Editorially the Toronto Star urges Ottawa to support South Korea, noting that “North Korea deserves to be named and shamed.” The problem is, Kim Jong Il knows no shame. The only recourse is retribution.