Many Americans remember with anger, distress and sadness the 1950 Communist North Korean invasion of democratic South Korea. The attack led to the U.S. defense of South Korea and the three-year-long Korean War.
After American troops initially hung on to a small South Korean beachhead, U.S. forces advanced under the brilliant leadership of Gen. Douglas MacArthur to force the North Korean invaders into retreat. But Communist Chinese forces backed North Korea.
After three bitter and bloody years, the Korean War ended in a stalemate along the 38th parallel, and a 1953 armistice.
Since then, South Korea happily has become a thriving democratic republic. But Communist North Korea has remained a prison for its own impoverished people – and a continuing military threat.
Now, in 2011, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has felt it necessary to warn that the erratic North Korean Communist dictatorship – now possessing nuclear weapons and long-range missiles, but not good judgment or good intentions – poses a direct threat to the United States and the American people.
Do you recall that a Japanese submarine shelled California in World War II? Well, Communist North Korea possesses submarines, nuclear weapons and animosity.
But surely the North Korean Communists would not be so foolish as to attack the United States, many believe.
Unfortunately, the vicious and irrational regime in North Korea cannot be counted upon to be reasonable, even in its own interests.
Militant North Korean Communists constantly threaten renewed war on the Korean Peninsula itself, as well. There are almost constant provocations, including deadly military attacks even on South Korean civilians.
Gates said this week of the current danger, “We consider this a situation of real concern, and we think there is some urgency to proceeding down the track of negotiations and engagement.”
Gates, recently in China, credited the Chinese Communists with reining in the North Korean Communists, who depend upon China for much assistance and support.
But as long as the current Communist North Korean leadership is in control, is experiencing dire internal economic problems, and is driven by things other than logic and good will, North Korea will remain a threat that we cannot ignore.