As South and North Korea exchanged artillery fire in late August, the United States rushed three B-2 bombers to Guam. The Obama administration hoped to deter the North from taking military action, but why is Seoul still a helpless dependent 62 years after the Korean War ended?
Imagine a hostile relationship existing between the U.S. and Mexico. The Mexicans pour their limited resources into their military and threaten America with war. Washington responds by begging Europe and Japan to send military aid.
America would face raucous laughter. After all, the U.S. has more than 2.5 times Mexico's population. America's GDP is an even more impressive 14 times that of Mexico's. Yet the disparity between South Korea and North Korea is larger. The South enjoys a population edge of two-to-one and an economic advantage upward of 40-to-one.
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