At this point in time, in the year of our lord 2022, the geopolitical world may be best described as a hornet’s nest that’s been swiftly and repeatedly kicked, causing a massive, buzzing hive of angst and violence that threatens to sting any living thing in its presence.
Exemplifying this horrid and hasty condition this week is North Korea, whose anger over joint military drills between the US and South Korea has them launching dozens of ballistic missiles and threatening to use nuclear weapons.
North Korea issued a veiled threat Tuesday to use nuclear weapons to get the US and South Korea to “pay the most horrible price in history,” an escalation of its fiery rhetoric targeting the ongoing large-scale military drills between its rivals. Animosities on the Korean Peninsula have been running high in recent months, with North Korea testing a string of nuclear-capable missiles and adopting a law authorizing the preemptive use of its nuclear weapons in a broad range of situations. Some experts still doubt North Korea could use nuclear weapons first in the face of superior US and South Korean forces. North Korea has argued its recent weapons tests were meant to issue a warning to Washington and Seoul over a series of joint military drills that it views as an invasion rehearsal, including this week’s exercises involving about 240 warplanes, the AP reports.
North Korea fired more than 20 missiles on Wednesday in the direction of South Korea, and at least one landed near the rivals’ tense sea border.
South Korea retaliated by firing its own test missiles, sending some citizens to evacuate in underground shelters.
This is the most missiles North Korea has ever fired in one day and the first time a short-range ballistic missile has landed near South Korea’s territory since 1945, when the peninsula was divided.
The news comes as Russia, Iran, and China are all antagonizing the US and the rest of the Western world, creating a de facto “axis of authoritarianism” that threatens to spark an international conflict the likes of which the world hasn’t seen in some time.
