The situation on the Korean Peninsula is becoming more serious, as a conflict is about to begin at any time between North Korea and South Korea. Meanwhile Iran has warned Israel against an attack. The common denominator in both cases is the United States.
This week the situation in the Korean Peninsula escalated. South Korean navy sent a warning to some North Korean fishing vessels that crossed the maritime border between the two Koreas in the Yellow Sea, official sources indicated. After the warning, the boats went back to the territorial waters of North Korea. This incident is the latest in a series of incursions of North Korean fishing vessels in the waters of South Korea. In recent years, Seoul has sent several military ships in the area, due to incursions by North Korea near Yeonpyeong island. The island became in November 2010 the theater of dramatic inter-Korean confrontations that ended up with four South Koreans people dead (two soldiers and two civilians).
A North Korean missile attack was the first on a civilian area in South Korea, after the inter-Korean war (1950-1953). The sea border between the two countries, drawn after the war in the peninsula, is not recognized by North Korea (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, DPRK), serving as a pretext for confrontation between the naval forces of the two countries. They are in a state of belligerence, as the Korean Peninsula conflict ended up in a truce, not a peace agreement. In case of a conflict, South Korea can rely on the support of the U.S. with whom it has collaborated on several military exercises in the Yellow Sea.
Iran has warned Israel against an attack
Also this week Iran warned again Israel and its ally, U.S., against any attack, stressing that Tehran’s response will be immediate.
“We do not feel threatened by the absurdities stated by the leaders of this regime (Israel)”, the head of Iran’s armed forces, General Hassan Firouzabadi, said for the Fars news agency. The statement was made during a military parade to mark the outbreak of war with Iraq (1980 – 1988).
He added that Tehran’s response to any attack “would be immediate and could not be stopped,” while Israeli authorities threatened in recent weeks that they would strike Iranian nuclear targets.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said during a televised speech that his country “shows the same spirit and confidence” as during the war with Iraq, to “resist and defend its rights” in the face of pressure of Western power.
The Western countries and Israel suspect that Iran wants to acquire nuclear weapons under the cover of civilian nuclear program, which Tehran denies categorically. A range of sanctions were adopted against Iran by the UN, EU and Washington to try to convince the Iranian regime to abandon its nuclear program.
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