Kaesong Industrial Park Shut Down By North Korea, But It's Just More Desperate Rhetoric

Impact

aNorth Korea has stepped up its game in overdramatic rhetoric by blocking access to a joint industrial zone that connects to South Korea. As tensions increase in the Korean peninsula, the closing of the zone will cut off all remaining ties between the bordering nations. The event has sparked increased U.S. military intervention, but to the North Koreans' dismay their credibility has not and will not gain leverage.

The Kaesong Industrial Park reportedly earns upwards of $2 billion a year in revenue, and hosts 123 companies. An estimated 50,000 North Korean workers as well as hundreds of South Korean citizens occupy the site. Since the orders were received from North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-Un, the South Korean workers have been released and military vehicles have blocked entrances to the park.

Kim continues to make nuclear threats towards South Korea as well as the United States, but the likelihood of his plans coming to fruition is slim to none. However, the UN and U.S. have not taken this rhetoric lightly. 

"Nuclear threats are not a game. Aggressive rhetoric and military posturing only result in counter-actions, and fuel fear and instability," said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a press conference.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry held a news conference Tuesday along with South Korea’s foreign minister, criticizing North Korea’s faulty rhetoric.

 

"We've heard an extraordinary amount of unacceptable rhetoric from the North Korean government in the last days, so let me be perfectly clear here today. The United States will defend and protect ourselves and our treaty ally, the Republic of Korea," Kerry said.

Once again North Korea has attempted to exercise rhetoric as a desperate attempt to become a world superpower. If anything the actions taken by Kim Jong-Un illustrate the nation’s classification as a revisionist state. They are ready to risk everything, including their crumbling economy, just to compete on the world stage. However, their faulty rhetoric will catch up with them and increased U.S. occupation will eventually force Kim to reconsider his targets. Commence the next "threatening" act.