South Korea’s staging of wargames exercises on Yeonpyeong Island one year after the North’s artillery bombardment of the island has provoked the belligerent hermit state to issue a threat of a “sea of fire” upon the South if it does not cease its provocative exercises immediately. The attack on Yeonpyeong Island over one year ago killed two marines and two civilians as well as provoking the most tense standoff between the divided nations since the end of the Korean War over sixty years ago. The shelling of Yeonpyeong Island was part of a series of international maneuvers on the part of North Korea to bolster its international presence and blackmail the world into delivering its regime much needed aid. North Korea’s nuclear program has left it an international pariah and it often relies on brinksmanship and extortionist tactics to get basic supplies needed for national survival. Its domestic economy is in a shambles and it is unknown to what degree this has an effect on their military readiness, but North Korea is one of the most well armed nations on the planet, ready to engage in full-scale warfare of the type not seen since the 1950’s.

[CNN]