Cold War Tactics in Korea

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia-pacific/2012/10/20121076301997225.html

This article discussed the fact that South Korea has upgraded its ballistic missiles so they can fire up to 800 kilometers. Before, they could only fire 300 kilometers. This move by the South Koreans was taken as a measure of deterrence against North Korea, who in April shot off a failed long-range rocket. Many people in Washington, along with the South Koreans, assumed that this long-range rocket was fired to test long-range missile capabilities. Therefore, South Korea needed to increase the range of their missiles to counter North Korea's move in an attempt to prevent North Korea from trying to make missiles. Although this article is relatively insignificant now because there have been no consequences from these moves, it has great ideological implications. We are seeing in the Koreas today what happened between the Soviet Union and the United States during the Cold War. We see the same suspcion and assumptions of North Korea that we had of Russia and we also see the principle of deterrence at a very simple level here. Another concern raised in this article is that Russia, China, and Japan are now in range of South Korea's missiles, and their reaction to this will be uncertain.


Jon Kingzette