South Korea’s military has reported GPS signal disruptors coming from the demilitarized zone on the Korean border, which have interrupted dozens of planes and vessels. South Korea’s two Chiefs of Staff have said that the GPS manipulation operations have been detected near the North Korean border cities of Haeju and Kaesong. The disruptions lasted for multiple days straight, and have raised the tensions between North and South Korea, who are currently engaging in conflict with each other. North Korea has recently been more bold in the conflict with their flaunting of nuclear capabilities through test fires at the sea and the flying of balloons which have dropped trash and anti-South Korea propaganda over the country.
Although South Korea and North Korea are not engaging each other violently, they are fighting each other in a proxy war. This can be likened to the Cold War, which held the most famous of proxy battles between communism and capitalism. While North Korea could destroy South Korea with nuclear weapons, the allies of South Korea (including the United States) would likely engage in nuclear war with North Korea. The idea of mutual destruction is keeping the two countries from destroying each other, and forcing them to instead participate in shows of strength, nuclear tests, or other smaller jabs, GPS disruption and trash balloons.
This article has many connections to what we have been learning about in class, specifically reciprocity and international theories. The two countries cannot delve into full warfare, as nuclear weaponry is bound to be used, which would likely result in both countries being destroyed due to both countries’ allies and reciprocity. South Korea has been taking a very liberal theory stance on the conflict, attempting to take the high road and ignore North Korea’s petty actions. Opposingly, North Korea is attempting to use a realist approach by showing strength to try to dominate over South Korea and gain as much power as possible.