The clouds of war that have cast dark shadows over Europe and the Middle East are now extending to the Korean Peninsula. In recent days North Korea threatened to go to war with South Korea after remnants of a supposedly South Korean drone was found in North Korean territory. Photos of the drone were released by North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), which officials said they retrieved on October 13. North Korean military and state security agencies claim that the design of the drone is the same as the drones that were recently shown during a parade in South Korea. This comes after North Korea publicly accused South Korea earlier this month of flying drones over the capital city of Pyongyang. The North Koreans maintain that the drones were seeking to distribute anti-North Korean propaganda. North Korean officials insist that the alleged drone incident represents a grave threat. A statement released by KCNA asserted: “If a violation of the DPRK’s territorial ground, air, and waters by ROK’s military is discovered and confirmed again, it will be regarded as a grave military provocation against the sovereignty of the DPRK and a declaration of war and an immediate retaliatory attack will be launched.” North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un reinforced this threat during a speech last Friday: “As we have already declared, if our offensive forces are used in the precondition of ‘if,’ it constitutes legitimate retaliatory action against the hostile country, not the fellow countrymen.”  Despite the rhetoric of “retaliation,” Kim and his lackeys have long displayed aggressiveness against South Korea. Last Tuesday, they destroyed northern sections of unused road and rail routes that once linked North Korea to South Korea. The routes have not been used for over a half century, but nonetheless, their destruction was seen as a symbolic act of North Korea’s anger.  These threats are nothing new to South Korea. Despite no confirmation of responsibility from South Korean officials over the drone, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff responded to North Korea’s threat by vowing, “If the safety of our citizens is threatened in any way, our military will respond with stern and thorough retaliation.” The timing of this escalation is especially troubling. It comes just as news reports have surfaced about the discovery of North Korean forces assisting Russia in its war on Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that close to 10,000 North Korean troops have arrived in Russia, according to recent intelligence he had received from his government.  Members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) have questioned the validity of these reports. However, there does seem to be mounting evidence of North Korean forces in Russia, signaling a major point of escalation for the war in Ukraine. Last Friday, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) released a report stating that 1,500 North Korean special forces were sent to Russia’s far east for training and acclimatizing. The NIS report revealed, “four landing ships and three escort ships belonging to the Russian Pacific Fleet completed the first transport of approximately 1,500 North Korean special forces from the areas near Chongjin, Hamhung, and Musudan (Attachment 1) to Vladivostok, Russia … and a second transport operation is scheduled to take place soon.”  Additionally, the NIS report stated that North Korean officers were visiting frontline areas in Ukraine to assist Russian forces with North Korean-made KN-23 short-range ballistic missiles. The report states that “the Ukrainian government announced that the KN-23 short-range ballistic missiles that North Korea provided to Russia were used in attacks on major cities, including the Ukrainian capital Kiev, resulting in a significant number of civilian casualties.” In response to North Korea’s growing involvement in Ukraine, South Korea officials spoke with the Russian ambassador to South Korea, Georgy Zinoviev, demanding a complete withdrawal of all North Korean forces from Russia. While American policy makers have expressed concern over North Korea’s behavior on the Korean peninsula, the real danger is the prospects of a larger global conflict. Between North Korea’s growing cooperation and defense pacts with China and Russia, as well as America’s mutual defense treaty with South Korea, the prospect of a wider conflict has begun to inch closer to becoming a frightening reality. Should Kim Jong-Un keep true to his word and order any military action against South Korea, he would be responsible for pushing the world towards cataclysm.  The post Kim Jong-Un Pushes South Korea, and the World, to the Brink of War appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.