Rising military tensions with North Korea have people wondering whether the United States is in for full-on

war.

Since Kim Jong-il’s death in December of 2011, his son Kim Jong-un has engaged in a series of increasingly confrontational and antagonistic threats and military actions, provoking preemptive defensive military mobilization from both the USA and South Korea.

Because of its proximity, South Korea is most vulnerable to attacks from North Korea should tensions escalate into all-out war.

SFCC business major Sarah Kim, from South Korea, doesn’t believe that North Korea will start a war.

“Most Koreans do not think that the war will happen,” Kim said. “North Korea has threatened us many times in the past, but it never turned into war.”

But if war does happen, she believes that both countries would have a lot of damage, both physically and psychologically.

“It would be hard to repair ourselves after the war” Kim said.

Former SFCC student Won Kyung Sung, who left SFCC and returned to South Korea last winter, views things differently.

“Of course the threat of an atomic bomb worries me,” said Sung. “The most I can hope is that my family and I don’t lose everything we have.”

When Kim Jong-un first ascended to power a year and a half ago, there was controversy over whether or not he would merely be a figurehead; many believed true power lay with the pre-existing network of military generals from his father’s reign. That question was answered, however, when South Korea reported his execution of dozens of high ranking officers in March 2012.

“Their ships are very old, and they have very few airplanes,” said Sung. “Their technology is antiquated.”

Jong-un’s father and grandfather’s legacies hang over his head. Kim Jong-il, Jong-un’s father, was able to force the USA and South Korea into such things as providing money for cash-generating investment zones, food aid to the impoverished North, and fuel used to help build the military.

Despite his tactics of using threats to get what he wanted, Jong-il was known for always backing down before his words turned into actions. Many in the US fear that Jong-un may turn out differently.

A statement by President Barack Obama on Feb. 12 offers insight into the situation with North Korea.

“These provocations do not make North Korea more secure,” Obama said. “Far from achieving its stated goal of becoming a strong and prosperous nation, North Korea has instead increasingly isolated and impoverished its people through its ill-advised pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery.

“The United States remains vigilant in the face of North Korean provocations and steadfast in our defense commitments to allies in the region.