Great powers game about South and North Korea

For many years, things have been teetering between South Korea and Kim Jong Un’s communist dictatorship in North Korea.

Now, South Korean President Yun Sok-yul has appeared in the embers — well helped by neighbor North Korea and ally the United States.

– White House envoy Kurt Campbell said in Seoul on Tuesday, at the time we are talking, an American nuclear submarine is moored in Busan today.

according to The New York TimesThis was the first time in four decades.

– escalation

– I don’t think that was smart, says Geir Helgesen about visiting the nuclear submarine.

The researcher, who is associated with the Nordic Institute for Asian Studies at the University of Copenhagen, believes it was clear that it would stir up.

– I should see it as an attempt to use the tense situation for what is already the main drive of the United States in the region, which is armaments, Helgesen tells Dagbladet.

He explains it with America’s rival, the superpower, China, which has clear interests in the region.

He believes the submarine visit is a definite escalation.

– It was seen by North Korea as an escalation, and perhaps by China as well. Then there is the crescendo, he tells Dagbladet.

An amazing coincidence

If the idea of ​​a submarine visit was to be provocative, it succeeded beyond all expectations.

Just hours later, North Korea responded with two short-range ballistic missiles. NTB reported that, according to South Korea, the missiles flew about 550 kilometers before landing east of the Korean peninsula.

As if the situation wasn’t tense enough already, the submarine’s visit and missile launch coincided almost in time with another startling event:

A US soldier fled across the border into North Korea on Tuesday, according to the US Department of Defense, the Pentagon, “intentionally and without permission.”

according to The New York Times He was charged with assault and risked disciplinary action at his home in the United States.

He weighs 140 kilos and does not sleep

– The muscles should show

In the past, Americans who ended up in North Korea were exploited for propaganda purposes, the American newspaper writes.

Geir Helgesen believes that the fleeing soldier makes the situation even more tense.

– The general tension is the reason why the United States does what it is doing, but the fact that something happens to an American soldier is the reason why the conflict on the Korean Peninsula has come to the fore again, he says, and explains:

“Something has to be moved that makes people at the Pentagon feel like they have to flex their muscles again,” he says, and points to, among other things, the massive media attention.

So far, North Korea has not commented on the soldier who fled to the country.

Based on past experience, it may take a long time, perhaps several months, before a statement is made on this issue.

America’s “Full Spectrum”.

The situation on the Korean Peninsula has been developing since at least April.

Then South Korean President Yun Sok Yul was in the United States and met President Joe Biden.

according to The New York Times Yoon emphasized at the time that South Korea would not develop nuclear weapons. But for North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, the meeting wasn’t just reassuring.

In the statement released from the meeting, President Biden said a North-to-South nuclear attack would offset “the full range of American capabilities, including nuclear.”

According to the New York Times, the South Korean president made a statement on Tuesday that relations with the United States would be elevated to a “nuclear-based alliance.”

– If North Korea attacks with nuclear weapons, the regime is over

“Not so crazy”

Geir Helgesen says that the visit of the American nuclear submarine created a very tense situation.

– It may be the spark of a major war, he says, but he adds that the possibility is still small.

This is because the two sides have long experience balancing on the brink of armed conflict, that neither the United States nor China is really interested in war, and that North Korea is not “as crazy as it is portrayed.”

– They know they are the weak side, and they will be destroyed in the war, says Dagbladet.

Now he is waiting anxiously to see what China will do.

– The Chinese said that if there is a conflict on the Korean Peninsula, they cannot sit and watch the war. Then they will share one way or another, Geir Helgesen says.

It is believed that a statement from China regarding what is happening on the Korean Peninsula now will come in two weeks.