Unless you’ve been living under a rock or drowning in homework, you’re probably aware that the 2018 Winter Olympic Games are taking place in PyeongChang, South Korea. What you may not know of is the promise of future peace these games have the potential to bring.
North and South Korea have been in the deadliest nuclear standoff since the Cold War, and their conflict has been at the forefront of the world stage for decades. However, this last week displayed a very memorable moment in this conflict; the first time a member of the Kim family has entered South Korea in decades, and she, the younger sister of Kim Jong-un, brought a historic proposal along with her: the opportunity for peace talks between North and South Korea.
Now the prospect of a unified Korea has not been a possibility since the Korean War, but stable and lasting peace would be a very welcome change for the peninsula. Now only one thing stands in the way of these peace talks, and his name is none other than, President Donald J. Trump.
Over the course of a wild first year in office, the president has retained a very constant opinion on the North Korean regime, especially their supreme leader, “rocket man” Kim Jong-un. Don’t think that the Korean dictator does not deserve any loathing done by anyone; the regime has done plenty to earn a less than poor reputation with the world as a whole. However, the North Korean regime, including Kim Jong-un himself, must be taken seriously.
The threat of a nuclear attack on the United States is feasible, but unlikely. The threat of a nuclear attack on South Korea, however, is significantly more feasible and way more deadly. South Korea is only about the size of Tennessee and therefore boasts a significantly higher population density than the U.S. as a whole. This essential boils down to the fact that South Korea could lose a massive amount of their nation to a single nuclear attack. But why would North Korea resort to this? Trump.
There’s nothing scarier than a man with nothing to lose. If President Trump puts North Korea into a situation where Kim Jong-un believes that his regime will be toppled by force, the nuclear arsenal of North Korea will go live. Best case scenario: North Korea gets reduced to a nation of ash and dust on behalf of the United States, and millions of innocent civilians in the country are killed before any North Korean warheads are launched. Alternatively, the North Korean arsenal is deployed first, and the entire Korean Peninsula is reduced to glass. There are no winners in these scenarios.
What I hope for is a return to talks of peace, and I honestly believe that if our president stays out of these new Korean affairs, the world could possibly see the end of this second cold war.
