North Korea: There is a lot more to think about apart from who is right and who is wrong

North Korea: There is a lot more to think about apart from who is right and who is wrong

While the mass media and exchanges in Internet Social Media are about who is right and who is wrong, there are much more fundamental issues to talk about.

We should reflect on the potential repercussions of military action and about the Law of Unintended Consequences.

More than 150,000 Chinese soldiers are being deployed right now along the border between China and North Korea. Tank units of the Russian Army are being deployed near the border between Russia and North Korea.

The expectation is that should nuclear facilities in North Korea are hit by the USA there is going to be widespread panic and hundreds of thousands of North Korea are going to be fleeing towards neighbouring countries including China and Russia.

But there is yet another element in the equation. When some years ago, there was a nuclear accident at Chernobyl, many countries including some faraway from Chernobyl suffered the consequences of the radiation waves coming out of Chernobyl.

Should nuclear installations in North Korea be hit, the potential for a regional catastrophe is very high. It is being said that radiation waves will hit Vladivostok within two hours. What will be the political and military consequences if radiation waves spread around one of the most populated areas of the planet? How will ordinary people react? My instinct tells me that there is going to be widespread rage that could push neighbouring countries over the edge on the path to all-out war and that alliance politics will create a major military conflict that could engulf the entire region.

This is not about what North Korea says or what USA says. This is not about who is right and who is wrong. This is not about soundbites. This is about what it could really happen if things get totally out of control.

President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation is absolutely right about the potential for a worldwide disaster. With the words of Sergei Ivanov still ringing in my ears stating that if there is war in Europe it is not going to be a nuclear war but a conventional war, I look at the Law of Unintended Consequences. What guarantees are there to avoid Nuclear War if all the major players in the region and members of the Security Council of the Organisation of the United Nations are involved in a major military conflict?

I think that the escalation of a regional conflict can have unpredictable consequences in the same manner that an event in Sarajevo triggered events that led to World War One and in the same manner that the invasion of Poland on September 1st 1939 started a chain reaction that led to World War Two, events in a small Asian country have the potential to create a massive conflict that could reach every single country in the world. Why? Because the World of today is much more interconnected, the kind of conflict we would be about to witness could have have catastrophic economic repercussions that could certainly lead to widespread political upheaval.

Like I wrote at the beginning, the issue at this point is not who is right and who is wrong. If what I think that could happen happens, it will not matter who is right and who is wrong.