South Korea said its army remained on alert Sunday, a day after North Korea threatened military action in response to Seoul's hard-line stance against its communist regime.
The latest harsh rhetoric from the isolated regime appeared aimed at heightening tensions on the divided peninsula and could be a test for Barack Obama days before he is sworn in as the new U.S. president.
The North's Korean People's Army called South Korean President Lee Myung-bak a "traitor" and accused him of preparing a military provocation, according to a statement carried Saturday by the North's state-run Korean Central News Agency.
Pyongyang said it was adopting "an all-out confrontational posture" and warned of a "strong military retaliatory step." South Korea immediately put its forces on alert.
This is all useful in showing that the regime in the north is dangerous and should be encouraged to collapse, but North Korea's rhetoric surpasses their military reach.
North Korea's military power has deteriorated massively since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Our efforts have contained North Korea with minimal aid while negotiations dragged on during the Bush administration.
North Korea probably does not have a nuclear weapon--even if you want to count their fizzle of a nuclear test as a success. So threatening Seoul with nuclear attack is out.
And North Korea's army is a shadow of its former self and probably would have a hard time holding the DMZ let alone attacking south with any chance of success.
North Korea's only real threat is using massed conventional artillery (tube and rocket) placed in range of Seoul to bombard the city. Luckily for us, we no longer have troops on the front line who can be attacked in such a manner by Pyongyang, so North Korea can't try to blackmail us that way.
Still, the North Koreans know that even Pyongyang's threats to inflict carnage on South Korea--even carnage that unleashes forces that could destroy North Korea's regime--has an effect because South Korea doesn't want to win at that price.
That doesn't mean we have to play along, of course. We should continue the slow strangulation that makes North Korean threats less meaningful every day.
Or maybe I'm being cynical, and the soothing balms of hope and change are just what the Pillsbury Nuke Boy needs to mend his ways and become a dear leader in more than just a title.
