North Korea War Rumors 2017: With Heated Rhetoric, Is the Reclusive Nation on a War Footing?
A series of disturbing events have been unfolding in and around the Korean Peninsula in a span of just one week. The North Korean capital of Pyongyang has been busy these past couple of days holding a huge military parade, a missile test and trading barbs with Washington over a possible nuclear strike.
All these are happening as the United States positions warships, submarines and an aircraft carrier formation on the waters near the reclusive state. Washington is not backing down in the escalating war of words, as well, sending Vice President Mike Pence all the way to the northern edge of South Korea to deliver a warning that the U.S. policy of "strategic patience" has come to an end when it comes to North Korea, as reported by Vox.
Just how precarious has the Korean peninsula become this past week? Enough to spark rumors of a possible war with North Korea, as things stand.
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Analyst familiar with the developments agree that the situation is volatile, but not to the point of an imminent war. Bruce Bennett, senior defense analyst at the RAND Corporation, noted the possibility, as reported by CNN. "The real question now is somebody going to make a stupid mistake, because some kind of minor escalation could get out of hand," the analyst said.
"It's not so dangerous that I'm not going to go to (South) Korea in three weeks. But it is a dangerous situation that could get out of hand," added Bennett.
While the direction of Trump's administration looks to be one toward measured rhetorical escalation, for now, it's harder to predict what the leader of the isolated nation would do. Joe Bermudez, analyst with the 38 North which monitors events in the reclusive state, noted that "(North Korea) believes the only way to deter the US from attacking them, and maintaining the power of the Kim regime, is by the possession of nuclear weapons" — an outcome that does not help the stability of the region in any way.
