North Korean supreme leader, Kim Jong-un, has said his country should be ready to use nuclear weaponry at any time and has threatened to turn Washington D.C. into a sea of fire, a comment that is certainly not infrequent but remains worrying for traditional enemies South Korea and the United States of America.
North Korea’s comments come after the U.S. and South Korea scheduled their largest military maneuver in South Korea ever, which will involve 15,000 U.S. troops, double the amount used in previous years, according to the Guardian UK.
North Korea fired an array of short-range missiles off its east coast in a show of defiance at the maneuver as well as against recently imposed international sanctions. Despite the fact the missiles were only fired only into the sea, the escalation has no doubt troubled the international community.
North Korea is commonly known as the ‘Hermit Kingdom’ because of its secrecy and isolation. It has been under increasingly severe sanctions because of its nuclear missile tests and aggravating behaviour since July 2006, when a United Nations Security Council resolution banned the sale of anything that could help the country’s escalating missile program.
The sanctions are in the form of embargos on the importation of certain goods, prohibition on procurement of arms and also freezing of funds and economic resources North Korea can use in its search for further proliferation of nuclear weapons and other munitions.
According to international law, North Korea is technically still waging the Korean War with South Korea due to a peace treaty never being signed despite the two countries, having ceased fighting in 1953 after an armistice agreement.
Most of North Korea’s 25 million people live in destitute poverty and an Amnesty International report recently concluded that “chronic malnutrition continued to plague most people, with several reportedly dying of starvation.” It went on to say the government has “reduced the daily food rations for households in July and August from 410g to 250g per person, well below the amount distributed during the same months in 2013 and 2014.” Human rights abuses are extremely common, with many family members arrested through guilt by association and forced to live for long periods of time in labour camps with horrific living conditions and incredibly arduous workloads.
Russia has also warned North Korea over their threats of using nuclear weaponry, and warned that their confrontational position is increasingly worrying one of their last remaining allies.