The Korean peninsula has been divided into North and South Korea since the end of World War Two. The United States and UN support South Korea whereas North Korea is supported by its bordering neighbor China and Russia. Recently however, North Korea has violated Russia and China’s trust by threatening its surrounding neighbors and the West with nuclear weapon tests, and also threatening the U.S. with “all-out war.”

This isn’t the first time North Korea has provoked the world community. The North Korean regime has consistently shown a pattern of threatening the outside world pushing other countries to supply strategic resources otherwise unavailable to North Korea. However, this is becoming ever more alarming to the Asian countries neighboring the Korean peninsula and to the world community.

The North Korean regime is the longest standing dictatorship in the world today. Kim Jong-un has absolute control within their borders, especially over the media. North Korea allows foreign news companies to broadcast to the world updates on their agenda within the city of Pyongyang, however it’s very limited as to what they can say. In North Korea, dissent of any form is met with imprisonment. When BBC’s John Sudworth interviewed North Korea’s vice-foreign minister, Han Song-ryol, Han had said North Korea has no such thing as political prison camps and the idea of them are fabricated to demonize North Korea.

Foreign reporters in North Korea are kept on a tight leash by what Sudworth called “government minders,” which are Korean officials that keep the media tightly controlled. This allows the North Korean government to control how their citizens view the outside world. Other news agencies report that the people of North Korea fully support the development of nuclear weapons because they see it as ensuring their survival as a nation.

The UN and the rest of the world community has denounced North Korea’s testing and development of nuclear weapons against UN sanctions. North Korea has a few types of missiles it’s been testing which include ICBMs (intercontinental ballistic missile) and SLBMs (submarine launched ballistic missile) that North Korea claims to have nuclearized. It hasn’t been officially confirmed that the missiles North Korea has are nuclearized.

A nuclear armed North Korea is concerning no matter where you live. People on social media have been making a lot of jokes about the failed missile tests. However, this isn’t a laughing matter. Every time North Korea fails they learn something about why they failed. It’s only a matter of time before the tests stop failing and North Korea develops a nuclearized ICBM that can reach the continental United States. No matter who you are or what your views of the world are, it’s safe to say nobody wants a nuclear conflict.