When North Korea gets its way, it behaves relatively well. When it does not, trouble ensues. The most recent act of petulance occurred Wednesday when North Korea fired dozens of artillery shells toward a disputed sea border with South Korea — which promptly retaliated with salvos of its own. No casualties were reported, but the unease on the peninsula shared by the two nations grew perceptibly following the exchange of ordnance.
The artillery exchange won prompt attention Wednesday, especially in the United States, China, Japan and Russia. Those nations have worked diligently to broker agreements or treaties that would provide security guarantees and economic aid to North Korea in return for denuclearization, but the North’s intransigence thwarts such discussion.
Even so, North Korean leaders continue to profess the desire to participate in the talks, but their rhetoric is not supported by action. They say they want to return to the six-nation nuclear talks, but only if the United States will sign a peace treaty formally ending the 1950-1953 Korean War and if international economic sanctions against the nation are lifted. That’s unlikely to happen.
The United States and other parties involved with the nuclear issue reasonably want North Korea to return to disarmament talks and to show progress in denuclearization before they will address that nation’s demands. That makes sense. A good faith showing by the North would expedite matters, but one has not been forthcoming.
Instead, North Korea continues to provoke the international community and to destabilize its relationship with South Korea. Within the month, for example, the North has said both that it would seek stronger ties to the South and that it would attack its southern neighbor for imagined transgressions. Similarly, it offered contradictory statements about playing a positive role in the world community. Wednesday’s artillery demonstration is widely viewed as a reminder that North Korea’s sense of self-importance remains high, and that it will deal with the rest of the world only on its own terms.