Is the Korean Demilitarized Zone poised to become "ground zero for the end of the world"? Historian Bruce Cumings, the author of The Origins of the Korean War, raised this question in a recent article for the London Review of Books, and judging by a series of exchanges between the United States and North Korea in recent weeks, the possibility may not be as remote as it once seemed.
In April, North Korea warned of the imminence of "a thermonuclear war," a prospect seemingly acknowledged by President Trump's declaration that, "We could end up having a major, major conflict with North Korea." On May 2, a US carrier strike group patrolled the waters off the Korean Peninsula in anticipation of North Korea's sixth nuclear test, which never happened. Nevertheless, on May 14, Pyongyang test-fired a new class of missile into the waters between the North and neighboring Japan, prompting the US to move a second heavily armed carrier strike group, equipped with Aegis missile defense systems, to the Korean Peninsula. These two strike groups, which jointly field a total of some 160-attack aircraft and are escorted by substantial support fleets, considerably raise the stakes in the region.
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