A woman walks past a television screen showing a news broadcast with footage of an explosion on a road connecting North and South Korea on October 15, 2024, at a train station in Seoul on October 16, 2024. North Korea blew up sections of the deeply symbolic roads and railways connecting it to the South on Oct 15, Seoul's military said, adding it had conducted a "counter-fire" operation in response. - Photo: AFP
SEOUL: The possibility of a war on the Korean Peninsula is once again in the spotlight.
Robert Manning, a distinguished fellow at the Stimson Center, recently argued that the risk of conflict is the highest it has been since the 1950-53 Korean War. While the timeliness of this assessment is understandable, it is necessary to approach such claims with caution. The argument that the risk of war has escalated sharply is accurate in some respects and exaggerated in others. Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have been a constant for decades, and while vigilance is crucial, alarmist conclusions can distort reality. This distortion is not merely theoretical -- it has real-world implications, particularly for South Korea's national image and economic stability. Therefore, a more careful analysis is required.
