As the U.S. watches BP continue to foul the Gulf of Mexico and criticizes Obama for not using his superpowers to plug the damn hole, crises are unfolding around the world that need attention.
North and South Korea
In March, a South Korean warship was hit by a missile and sank, killing 46 sailors. Investigators determined that the missile was from North Korea. South Korea cut ties with North Korea and issued some tough rhetoric:
The tough measures, announced in an address to his nation, were bound to ratchet up pressure on the isolated Pyongyang government and add a new flash point in U.S. relations with China.
“Fellow citizens, we have always tolerated North Korea’s brutality, time and again. We did so because we have always had a genuine longing for peace on the Korean Peninsula,” he said. “But now things are different. North Korea will pay a price corresponding to its provocative acts.”
Lee then said that “no North Korean ship will be allowed to make passage through any of the shipping lanes in the waters under our control” and that “any inter-Korean trade or other cooperative activity is meaningless.”
North Korea then announced it would cut all ties to South Korea. North Korea expelled all South Koreans working in North Korea and South Korea is dropping pamphlets into North Korea. Relations are at their worst in a long time.
Israel and Turkey
The crisis began when Israel fired on a flotilla of boats carrying supplies to Gaza, killing 10 people and wounding 50 more. Israel has a blockade of shipments to Gaza, but the ships were in International waters and one of the ships boarded was the Turkish ship Marmara. Israel is currently holding 480 activists from the flotilla.
Israel claims that the raid was justified and there have been major protests around the world (Juan Cole has a round-up). The biggest casualty will be the Israel-Turkey relationship:
Turkey yanked its ambassador from Israel in protest Monday and backed out of joint military exercises. As demonstrators took to the streets to demand revenge, Turkish leaders unleashed fiery rhetoric against Israel.
“It should be known that we are not going to remain silent in the face of this inhumane state terrorism,” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said. He denied Israeli allegations that there were weapons onboard, saying the ships were carefully screened.
At the United Nations, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu called Monday “a black day in the history of humanity.” Turkey demanded Israel apologize and return the bodies of the dead — most believed to be Turkish — as well as the wounded to their homelands.
To further complicate matters, Turkey is a member of NATO. NATO has called for an emergency meeting today. There may be more confrontations to come because Turkey is sending more ships with aid to Gaza.