2013年3月31日日曜日

North Korea : Not Clear.

この週末の間でもかなり警戒感が上昇しているのが北朝鮮の動向です。

朝鮮半島が事実上の戦争状態に入ったと宣言し、一方的な休戦協定の破棄や他国とのコミュニケーションホットラインも断絶状態になっています。

核開発や弾道ミサイルの開発などは相当進んでいるようですが、緊急事態を創出しなければ国が維持出来ない位に国内情勢が切羽詰っているのではないかと言う見方も出ています。

LIGNETと言う著名まインテリジェンス情報配信業者も週末の間に以下のような情報を発信しています。

日本のメディアはあまり騒いでいないようですが、海外メディアは相当な危機感で情報を収集し手報道しています。かの国が既に核技術とミサイルを持っていると言う事は、かの国が暴発した際の潜在的なターゲットは韓国とは限らない事も知っておく必要があるのではないでしょうか。

兎に角、状況を注視しましょう。安倍政権には米国との緊密な連携を維持・確保して欲しいと思います。


North Korea Threat Level Rises; Global Economy at Risk
After just over one year in power, North Korea’s novice leader, 30-year old Kim Jong Un, has dashed hopes that he will change course from the brinkmanship-style policies pursued by his late father, Kim Jong Il. (注;brinkmanship=瀬戸際外交)
For the first time in decades, U.S. intelligence and defense analysts believe the threat of an outbreak of significant hostilities on the Korean peninsula is a distinct possibility.
How would a potential conflict play out?
While there is little doubt that North Korea would lose, the consequences for the region would be dire, with casualties potentially in the hundreds of thousands, if not more.
Tensions and the risk of conflict have escalated precipitously on the Korean peninsula over the last year.
In addition to conducting a successful long-range ballistic missile and a third nuclear test, North Korea has ramped up, even by its own standards, its bellicose rhetoric.(注;bellicose=好戦的な)
North Korea has threatened the United States with a preemptive nuclear strike and announced it is nullifying the 1953 armistice, the fragile United Nations-brokered agreement that suspended hostilities on the peninsula.
It has also dismantled a communications hotline it had with the South and just this past weekend fired a volley of short-range missiles into the Sea of Japan.
Given the totality of events of the past year, LIGNET assesses that the outbreak of hostilities due to a miscalculation stemming from even a small provocation is currently high.
We look at the range of possible attacks that could result from an escalation in hostilities, including missile attacks on South Korea and Japan and even North Korea’s use of nuclear weapons.