[Opinion] Seeing the North Korean Stalemate From the Other Side
2017-10-08 04:12:52 source：New York Times
October 7, 2017
Pyongyang, North Korea — North Korea’s capital city is awash in propaganda. Posters depicting missiles, some striking the United States Capitol, hang along major streets. In recent days, a million civilians, including high school students, factory workers and older men who long ago completed their military service, have signed up at the government’s request to fight the United States, if needed.
“The situation on the Korean Peninsula is on the eve of the breakout of nuclear war,” Choe Kang-il, a senior Foreign Ministry official told me and three Times colleagues during a visit last week. Does that mean war is inevitable? “I think it depends on the attitude of the United States,” he replied.
There is no sign of any unusual military mobilization in Pyongyang or along the perpetually tense border with South Korea to suggest imminent conflict. American, North Korean and South Korean soldiers stand duty as usual at the demilitarized zone separating the sides since the 1950-53 Korean War, and tourists, as well as journalists like us, still visit there.
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