By Jack Haines
OP-ED Editor

For the last half century, the Korean Peninsula has been engulfed in an atmosphere of hostility and tension. Communist North Korea and democratic South Korea have been, in a technical ongoing state of war since a truce ended the armed conflict between the two nations in the early 1950’s. Since then, North Korea has acted out with various threats and provocations. The dictatorship has used heated rhetoric and pursued nuclear weapons for the past two decades, all while its own people were starving or imprisoned in labor camps. In the last month, the situation has become increasingly heated and it appears as if some sort of conflict is imminent.

But as dire as the situation may appear, the U.S. must ignore North Korea. If one looks at the past 50 years, it is evident that North Korea never backs up its threats. The nation is simply trying to stay in power, and receive food aid in exchange for an agreement.

In the past month, North Korea has threatened war, and closed down the only sign of north-to-south cooperation, the Kaesong industrial complex. While this may seem like a terrible sign of conflict to come, the Kaesong complex has been closed before, in 2009, without any following military action.

Most experts are only worried because leader Kim Jong-Un is inexperienced and has not been in control for very long. But he is no idiot. The Northern commanders are well aware of how to handle this situation, and know that any war against South Korea or the U.S. would spell doom for them. The North does not have the missile technology, food rations, or fuel supply to wage a full scale war. Any sort of Northern offensive would be short-lived and disastrous for the communists.

That being said, the likelihood of a war breaking out is slim. The communists do not want a war which they would certainly lose, and they want to stay in power. Keeping a state of perpetual “warfare” and a constant hatred for an enemy creates an atmosphere of nationalism, perfect for a dictatorship. North Korea needs to hate an enemy to survive in its current state.

So the best way to deal with this is to just ignore them. Mobilizing the military publicly will heighten the tensions, and push the countries closer to a war which could spawn by an accident.

That being said, nuclear proliferation cannot be allowed, and North Korea’s sanctions must be tightened. But starting a war will not help. The U.S. must not develop a policy of appeasement, but should not be overly aggressive. Only tightened sanctions and ignoring the bellicose rhetoric is the answer.