Where’s the love?
Tension between North Korea and South Korea took a turn for the worst recently, plunging the countries into the darkest bad blood since the violent maritime clashes of 1999 and 2002.
While the countries are technically still at war, with the conflict in 1953 ending without a peace treaty, an agreement that was established to put an end to accidental naval clashes had kept the peace to a greater or lesser extent since the incidents of 1999 and 2002. However, North Korea has now dropped the agreement in response to Seoul’s remonstrations over the sinking of the Cheonan, a South Korean warship, close to the Yellow Sea borderline back in March.
In addition to the dissolution of the agreement, North Korea have also decided to cut lines of communication on the open water, pulling the plug on short-wave radio communication that had previously been used to deal with emergency situations.
The whole situation makes me think of Neighbours in the 1990s. With its storyline revolving around the differences of the Ramsey family and the Robinsons the tension could have spiralled out of control and ended in tragedy like an Australian Romeo and Juliette or West Side Story. However, the whole thing was swept aside by the neighbourly love of Scott and Charlene.
All you need is love Korea… all you need is love.
