While the World Sleeps ... is Armageddon spelled Y-e-o-n-g-p-y-e-o-n-g ???

Yeongpyeong after attack earlier this week

Earlier today, North Korea warned the world that U.S.-South Korean plans for military maneuvers put the peninsula on the brink of war, and appeared to launch its own artillery drills for a second time yesterday within sight of an island (Yeongpyeong) that it showered with a deadly barrage earlier this week. Four persons died in the earlier attack.

The fresh artillery blasts yesterday were especially defiant because they came as the U.S. commander in South Korea, Gen. Walter Sharp--a previous colleague of mine when he was a company grade officer--toured the South Korean island to survey damage from Tuesday's hail of North Korean artillery fire that killed the four people mentioned above.

None of the latest rounds hit the South's territory, and U.S. military officials said Sharp did not even hear the concussions, though residents on other parts of the island panicked and ran back to the air raid shelters where they huddled earlier in the week as white smoke rose from North Korean territory.

Tensions have soared between the Koreas since the North's strike Tuesday destroyed large parts of this island, killing two civilians as well as two marines in a major escalation of their sporadic skirmishes along the sea border.

What most Americans are unaware of vis-à-vis these latest attacks is that (1) North Korea is run by a man who is certifiably insane, (2) North Korea has somewhere between six and nine (eight is the official number) nuclear weapons, and (3) Seoul, the capital of South Korea--and my family’s home for more than five years while I was a scientific advisor to the United Nations Command--is less than thirty miles from the DMZ … so that launching a nuke at three million innocent civilians is not outside of the military equation.

Another “Korean War” (killed 30,000+ American soldiers last time) is perhaps only one artillery round away.

Where that would lead—with both China and the U.S. nervous as hell—is anyone’s guess.
A nuclear missile aimed at Seoul is beyond Mediawingnuts’ imagination … would we nuke Pyongyang (North Korea’s capital city)? in retaliation? … Would China enter the fray against its better interests? … What date is being bandied around by the “Armageddon crowd” … December 21, 2012? … Will our globe make it till then?

This is a great test for both the Chinese negotiators (talking to Kim Jong Il) and our State Department (Hillary Clinton) talking assurances and calm to/with the South Korean leadership. I have some confidence, but when it only might take an errant (or deliberate) single missile falling on Yongsan (my old workplace atop a hill in Seoul) or who-know-where else, well … you get the idea!

Maybe Glenn Beck is right (see previous posting just below) and we should start stocking food and cyanide pills ... who knows? Nuttier guys than Beck have been right now and then through history ...