North Korea, South Korea...

With so many problems in the world today, we have recently been blown away with the news that North Korea has nuclear weapons. Can we really be that shocked?

A brief history and cultural lesson for everybody...technically, North Korea is still at war with South Korea and the United States. The Korean War never ended, and as a Korean American, I can tell you that this problem still exists, every single second of everyday. As a Korean person, I cannot look at the North Korean people as my enemy. Koreans never had the choice! The whole reason there is a North and South is because the U.S.A, and China and the then Soviet Union divided it at the "38th parallel," which is the most heavily guarded and armed border in the world.
Millions of Korean families were broken up, lost, kidnapped...not by choice, but because of political, geographical, and economical reasons. To this day, I have a great uncle that i will never meet, talk to, or even be able to send a letter to without worrying about censorship from the DPRK.
Geographically, Korea is an easy entrance way to all of Asia through the Pacific Ocean. Lying between China and Japan, Korea has endured centuries of war with both countries. There is still grips of animousity between these nations. Once the West became interested in Asia, the shit started to hit the fan everywhere. The US became interested with using Korea and other parts of Asia for military reasons. Strategically, the US and the Soviet Union (backed by China) formed a demarkation line at the 38th parallel separating Korea, into North and South. To this day, the United States and China have strategic agendas to make sure North and South will never ONE again.
Why shouldn't we be suprised about the North having nukes?
Well, we have known for over a decades that North Korea has sold arms to communist, guerilla, and outcasted nations. Having the USSR and China backing you pretty much means carte blanche. Once the Soviet fell and China became a Capitalist society there was little interest in North Korea. This left them fend for themselves with limited resources coming in as aid, where previously they lived typical Cold War communist ways. During this time, the South, backed by the United States prospered becoming one of Asia's major players. North Korea desperately wanted to get a piece of South Korea's action, so they started to trade, deal, and work even closer with sketchy countries.
During the 1990's, much of Asia suffered from a drought, but 3rd world countries like North Korea were extra fahked. Millions and millions of Korean people in the North died of starvation, and yet there was little to no media coverage of this. In the 1980's, celebrities rushed out to make cheesy songs to help countries around the world with starvation, but in 1995, not a single country but South Korea came to aid the North. Eventually, China started to send more aid, but even to this day, North Koreans have nothing to eat. Millions of tons of rice is exported weekly from South Korea and still people die everyday.
Towards the end of that decade, the US started to communicate with North Korea but due to an upcoming election, things were pushed to the side. Once Bush took office, he has basically blown off negotiations with North Korea, usually blaming the Clinton administration of ruining relationships with the North.
Why is this so important?
If the North has nukes, and their Leader Kim Il-Jong is crazy enough to see millions of his own people die of starvation while he eats like a king, why wouldn't he use it on neighboring nations like Japan, China, or even South Korea? He would. As I write this, there are hundreds of missiles and rockets pointed straight to Seoul, only a skip away. In less than 20 minutes after launch, thousands of Koreans will be dead. North Korea knows that the US (probably) wouldn't let this happen. Japan, China, Russia, the USA, and South Korea should all be shitting bricks and worried about what to do.

It freaks me out when i think about all the issues going on in Asia. Being Asian-American is already tough in this country, but being Korean-American may be even more difficult if things keep going the way they do. Muslims faced it recently with 9/11, and its only 60 years ago that the US Government displaced thousands of Japanese-American by forcing them to abandon their lives and live in internment camps. They (US GOV) said it was for "their protection."
Fahk that. They were scared. That was ONLY 60 years ago people...think about it.

Within my circle of friends, I am known to speak my mind and its not unusual for me to make snide comments about being "white people" and how I interact with a mostly all white crew. Although I believe in my heart my friends don't look at me as "the Korean guy," I often find myself feeling out of place just because of my skin color. Obviously my social circles are a result of my upbringing, but its still something I think about. Recently, a friend had a shirt made for me that read, "from the good korea". I know he had no ill intentions of getting this shirt for me, but it made me realize the naivity about what truly is the situation in my motherland.