Recently, there's been an awful lot of talk about how it is now the most dangerous time ever when it comes to the situation with North Korea. It seems everyone, particularly Trump critics, are saying that we are on the verge of Armageddon, the Third World War, and that Trump and his policies are going to bring about a war. Trump's administration doesn't help matters by saying things that sound ominous and foreboding, when it comes to the current situation, but then, they are only stating the facts in this case. We have a naval task force with a nuclear aircraft carrier and a nuclear submarine near North Korean waters and have set up the most advanced anti missile system in South Korea. North Korea, in the meantime, is flexing its muscles and firing off missiles in a series of provocative tests and keeps holding military parades to show off its hardware.
There is no doubt that the situation today on that small peninsula is very dangerous with both sides on the edge of their nerves. However, in reality, this situation is no more dangerous than it has been in the past since the cease fire in 1953! The state of war has always existed. What took place at Panmunjom was a cease fire agreement, nothing more. It was not the ending of the war, merely an agreement to stop shooting for a time being! This cease fire agreement had been broken numerous times, each time by the North Koreans. Yes, the situation today is very dangerous, but it has been this way for over a half a century! Perhaps because there are now nuclear weapons involved that it is considered more dangerous, but otherwise, nothing really is all that different. I think all those people who refer to the current situation as the most dangerous have either forgotten or don't know their history!
Let's just take a quick look at the past and the numerous incidents that took place that could have led to a full scale war! Right from the start after the cease fire in 1953, there were hostile engagements, firefights between the two sides. Initially there were no fences or barbwire to separate the two sides, so quite frequently, the North Koreans would infiltrate across the DMZ and engage South Korean or U.S. troops in skirmishes. This was so common that it was rarely even reported outside of Korea! Then the first major incident took place when in 1967 North Korean commandos infiltrated into South Korea, into Seoul and conducted a raid on the Blue House, the South Korea's presidential palace and government seat! More than two hundred South Koreans were killed or injured, mostly civilians, and two U.S. soldiers were killed in a firefight! This incident could have easily escalated into a full blown conflict, but it did not. Cooler heads prevailed and nothing came of that incident. Then in 1968 the North Koreans seized the U.S. spy ship, USS Pueblo and its 83 crew members off the North Korean coast. One U.S. crew member was killed and the rest were imprisoned and tortured for 11 months before a release was negotiated. If ever an act of war was committed directly against the U.S., that was it! Yet, nothing happened, no U.S. military intervention or reaction. A year after the "Pueblo Incident", an EC-121 aircraft was shot down by North Koreans killing all 31 U.S. crew members. Again, nothing happened as a result.
Following those two incidents, the seizure of the U.S. ship and the shooting down of the aircraft, there were numerous incidents on the DMZ. There were gunfire exchanges almost weekly. Then in 1976 at Panmunjom, two U.S. Army officers were killed by North Koreans. They were attacked by hatchet wielding North Korean soldiers who killed the two Americans brutally. Again nothing happened. Protests were filed and threats made, but as in all previous "incidents", nothing happened at the end. There were also numerous hostile acts carried out by North Korea against South Korea such as the bombings in Burma that killed South Korean government officials and the shooting down of a Korean Airlines plane killing all passengers! None of these attacks brought about a war.
The situation in Korea, particularly along the DMZ has been volatile and extremely dangerous ever since the DMZ was established in 1953. What most Americans, even those who served in the Army do not know is that for soldiers serving along the DMZ, the Combat Infantry Badge (CIB) was authorized from 1969 until 1994! It was only in 1994 that Pentagon decided that the situation had stabilized enough that the CIB would no longer be authorized for those on DMZ duty. Just think about it! I am sure everyone assumed that during that era and later, only those U.S. servicemen that served in combat in Vietnam, Dominican Republic, and later in Grenada, Panama, and Gulf War were authorized the CIB for Army and Combat Action Ribbons for Marines, sailors and airmen. How many people in America actually knew that service on the DMZ in Korea was considered combat duty!
So, yes, the situation today on the Korean peninsula is very dangerous indeed. But I believe that in reality it is no more dangerous than it was in the past. Of course, there is that additional danger of nuclear weapons in the possession of people with questionable sanity. However, North Koreans had demonstrated in the past they did not need to have nuclear weapons to be reckless, unpredictable and dangerous! They could attack with hatchets, they don't even need modern weapons! Today it is a very dangerous world in general, but Korea appears to be especially dangerous. But then again, if you look back at the last half a century, it has always been a very dangerous place!
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