Blog Assignment #2

In the link provided below, you'll find an article I located on the Austin American Statesman website. This article is a recent report on an ongoing story involving U.S. foreign policy.
For seven years, the U.S. (a global babysitter) has been slapping North Korea's hand away from the nuclear oven, and for seven years they have continued to reach for it, burning themselves every time yet never learning. Our "slap" has come in the form of U.N. sanctions pushed through by the U.S. and our allies across the world, but most importantly by our allies in the region.
Newly appointed Sec. of State, John Kerry, and South Korean foreign minister, Kim Sung-hwan, had a phone conversation earlier this week. They agreed that if North Korea carries out what would be it's 3rd nuclear test (2006, 2009, 2013?) that there would be "further consequences" (sanctions). The only problem here being that N.Korea is now inviting these sanctions. Last month, the DPRK released a statement of their intent to detonate another nuclear device in protest of the new sanctions imposed from a rocket launch that was claimed to be an attempt at placing a satellite in orbit.
How much longer do we stand by and enact economic sanctions that hold no weight? The only people affected by this tightening noose are the people of the DPRK who are starving, diseased, and brainwashed. How much longer do we pretend we can't see a correlation between verbal threats, rocket launches, and nuclear tests?
It may sound insensitive, but genocide, chemical weapons, suicide bombings, and tyranny in other countries don't hold a candle to this threat. Those are regional problems that have a very small chance of spreading far enough to affect the global population. One wrong move, one twitchy finger on a button, one warhead sale could launch a worldwide domino effect of nuclear retaliation.
The U.S. was made powerful through making an example of those who would starve, murder, and oppress their own, or their neighbors. What incentive to desist are we giving others who would follow the DPRK's path? Answer: None. It's time to act decisively and put an end to these games North Korea is playing with the rest of the world. There is a time to "slap hands" and advise, and conversely there is a time to act and make an example of those who threaten the rest of the world without incident.

http://www.statesman.com/ap/ap/aerospace/nkorea-issues-guidelines-on-strengthening-military/nWDs6/