S3: The Korean War’s winner in 1953 and 2017 was the DPRK. At the conclusion of fighting in 1953, the largest loser was the South Korean people. They had their Army annihilated at the outset of the war, their people suffered a short but brutal occupation by communists, and then strong-armed into an armistice. America failed them at nearly every turn: they did not prepare them for the outset of the conflict, they failed to secure strategic victory after Incheon, and then we quit after the Chinese intervened. The DPRK won face defeating the Americans and their championed ROK partners.

Through the subsequent decades, South Koreans lived with a lower GDP than their northern brethren, propped up by generous subsidies from the USSR. Even in politics, the South Koreans were not exactly a democracy. With the rapid industrialization of the 1980s and the implementation of clear democratic politics, South Korea became the “miracle of the east.” In the same time, the USSR collapsed and North Korea’s bellicose rhetoric became more and more stale to their sole ally, China. North Korea’s quality of life continued to plummet in relation to the rest of the world through the 90s as floods and crop failures led to widespread famine and starvation.

Today, life in North Korea is unimaginable compared to the comforts of average south Korean life. However, I would caution to consider the victory the West’s and/or South Korea’s. Continued peace on the Peninsula has allowed the DPRK to produce nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. While communism no longer exists as it did in 1953, one must not underestimate the DPRK’s willingness to throw itself blindly at the West in naked aggression.

I would argue that the 90s or the early 2000s would have been the best time to destroy the Kim regime and ensure reunification on the Peninsula without Chinese intervention and or the absolute destruction of Seoul. Today, there is that much more to lose in South Korea, due to the DPRK’s nuclear capability. Having come this far, and survived the rise /fall of communism, the Pax Americana, and the Global War on Terror, the DPRK won the Korean War. What was once a war to reunify the two nations under communism, has morphed into the conflicts of the Kim regime. With nuclear capability, I believe the Kims will continue to exist well into the 21st century and if they are to end, so shall the prosperity of the ROK; thereby negating all South Korean efforts put in to rebuilding ROK after the first war.

All that being said, I have the earnest belief that the next war shall be the final one for the hearts and minds of all Korean people. China will not support the DPRK if they were to use nuclear arms against any neighbor in the region. There will be no surprise act in the 11th hour for the DPRK; rather, it will be the purging of a tyrannical state whose demise was long overdue.

BEAT NAVY!