What Is Happening On The Korean Peninsula Will Impact All Of Us

South Korean naval ship Cheonan patrols the sea in an unidentified location in the territorial waters of South Korea. Photograph: Yonhap/Reuters

North Korea On The Edge -- Wall Street Journal

If the regime collapses, will the rest of the world be ready?

Kim Jong Il may be increasingly wizened and frail, with fingernails white from kidney disease, but his propaganda apparatus is as vigorous as ever. On a current wall poster a worker gestures toward the slogan, "A strong and prosperous nation is coming into view!" In the background, fireworks explode over brightly-lit buildings, a pile of rice and potatoes, three-spanking new missiles, and a bulldozer.

To North Koreans the weaponry must be the only part of the picture that doesn't look ridiculously optimistic. United Nations sanctions continue to take their toll on imports and exports alike. By most accounts, last autumn's currency reform did nothing but worsen an already rampant inflation. Over half the factories in the country remain idle. The food shortage is worsening; there are accounts of starvation even in major urban centers like Pyongyang.

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My Comment: Many of my closest friends are Koreans, and from them I have been blessed with getting information on North Korea that many in the West rarely get from their own media. In short .... the horror and misery that exists in that country cannot be properly defined .... nor understood. The evil that exists in that country would make George Orwell's 1984 pale in comparison, and the unbelievable suffering of the North Korean people can only be found in biblical texts.

Tonight .... we may be at the brink of a new conflict in Northeast Asia that has the potential to put tens of millions of lives at stake .... many of them American. While there is hope among many that this sinking of a South Korean warship was an accident, and that the tension would decrease .... I do not share this sentiment. A certain line was crossed today, and the consequences will be felt .... if not today, sometime in the future.