Will the tension between North and South Korea lead to a military confrontation in 2023?
According to France 24; After a year marked by North Korea’s frequent missile tests, the start of 2023 looks a lot like 2022 as Pyongyang test-launched another short-range missile on January 1. Meanwhile, North Korea ended 2022 by conducting three missile tests on the night before Christmas.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Sunday called for an exponential increase in the country’s nuclear arsenal (including mass production of nuclear-tipped missiles) this year. Kim even openly described South Korea as a “target” in his New Year’s speech.
Christoph Bluth, an expert on the “two Koreas” at the University of Bradford, says the request and speech says it all because Pyongyang has avoided using the term in the past because it needs to preserve the idea of ”the reunification of two brotherly countries.”
Danilo Dellefau, an assistant research professor at the Verona-based International Security Studies Team, believes that the developments of the last few days show that when North Korea is involved, “we are in a very worrying situation.”
The first incident was the launch of five North Korean drones into South Korean airspace on December 27, which challenged Seoul’s air defense system. Blath says: North Korea wanted to prove that it is able to show its success in this field; “An area that its southern neighbor has not yet succeeded in realizing, and while South Korea has the upper hand over Pyongyang in terms of technology.”
