Skip to content

We ask you, humbly: don't scroll away.

Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. Thank you.

Help Now >

Why stealth bombers over Korea are a mistake

Free World Class Education
FREE Catholic Classes
Flying the sorties sends a message, feeds the political machine in the North.

In a move that is sure to upset North Korea, the U.S. has sent a B-2 Stealth bomber on a flight over South Korea during joint military exercises with that country. The show of force comes after North Korea said it was abandoning its 1953 armistice with the South and targeting the U.S. with nuclear weapons.

Deacon Keith Fournier Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. Thank you. Help Now >

Highlights

By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM)
Catholic Online (https://www.catholic.org)
3/28/2013 (1 decade ago)

Published in Asia Pacific

Keywords: Stealth, bomber, Kim Jong Un, mission, mistake, North Korea, South Korea, tension, war, politics

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - On Tuesday, a B-2 Spirit stealth bomber flew over South Korea in what appears to be a show of force for the North Koreans. The bomber flew from its base in Missouri to South Korea, dropped dummy bombs on a target, then flew home as quietly as it came.

The bomber's appearance over South Korea was probably intended to demonstrate to North Korea's young leader, Kim Jong Un, that the U.S. has the easy ability to strike his country without warning.

So far, the North has shown no reaction.

North Korea remains the world's most secretive and elusive country. Governed by a totalitarian dynasty, now in its third generation, just what happens in the country remains a mystery to most. Reports tell of a massive population of people living in abject poverty, constantly threatened with imprisonment and death by a brutal regime. Famine is a chronic threat.

Meanwhile, Kim Jong Un and his comrades in the government and military, live luxurious lives, drunk with power.

Political experts suggest that to assert his power over the country, Kim Jong Un, the young son of the late Kim Jong Il, has been doing a lot of saber rattling. Despite the tough talk, North Korea may not be near the brink of war at all. Instead, the bellicose rhetoric could be more for his people than the outside world.

It is thought that so long as North Korea can keep up the appearance of threat by the West, the government can justify brutal and dictatorial control over the people.

The flight of the B-2 would only serve Kim Jong Un's purposes then, by giving the North Koreans another excuse to increase the rhetoric and act out once again, possibly with another nuclear test, or some form of belligerence, such as the sinking of a ship near border waters, or the shelling of targets over the border. Both types of attack have been used in recent years, killing several people in the South.

Despite the North's excessive belligerence, no attack has sparked conflict.

Although it appears both North Korea is actually reluctant to fight, it would be a mistake to dismiss the threat in its entirety. North Korea has one of the world's largest militaries and the country has spared little expense on it. The North also has several short-range missiles that can strike targets across South Korea with conventional warheads.

Light Your Free Payer Candle for a departed loved one

What is Palm Sunday?

Live on March 20, 2024 @ 10am PDT

Although the country has nuclear weapons, it is unclear if these can be deployed in combat; it's not a question anyone would like to see answered by the North.

For the moment, the world waits to see how Kim Jong Un will spend his new political currency, given him by Tuesday's B-2 flight. Perhaps a policy of de-escalation and careful ignorance of the North's behavior would be more conducive to peace than feeding the North's rhetoric machine with new fodder.

---


'Help Give every Student and Teacher FREE resources for a world-class Moral Catholic Education'


Copyright 2021 - Distributed by Catholic Online

Join the Movement
When you sign up below, you don't just join an email list - you're joining an entire movement for Free world class Catholic education.

Lent logo
Saint of the Day logo

Catholic Online Logo

Copyright 2024 Catholic Online. All materials contained on this site, whether written, audible or visual are the exclusive property of Catholic Online and are protected under U.S. and International copyright laws, © Copyright 2024 Catholic Online. Any unauthorized use, without prior written consent of Catholic Online is strictly forbidden and prohibited.

Catholic Online is a Project of Your Catholic Voice Foundation, a Not-for-Profit Corporation. Your Catholic Voice Foundation has been granted a recognition of tax exemption under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Federal Tax Identification Number: 81-0596847. Your gift is tax-deductible as allowed by law.