Rumors about South-Korea being alerted by the situation in Israel, fearing an attack from North-Korea. I can't find any good source for this alertness though, North-Korea does plan a nuclear test but that is mentioned as distraction from the ongoing food crisis in the country.
Armies do need food too. They can steal it, but they don't work so well if they have to fight another army and steal instead of just fighting. Well armies don't work well, that's an oxymoron, but hopefully you get what I mean.
If North-Korea would start a war the US can only support two countries. Not Ukraine, Israel, South-Korea and who knows even Taiwan.
Half the world has been willing for decades to get rid of the USA hegemony. But just as the USA can't support many wars, that half of the world can't either.
Russia was supposed to export oil and gas everywhere, have a huge army and enormous arsenals. Now Iran is selling them suicide drones and helping them build them, North Korea is sending train loads of ammunition to Russia, and Putin is forbiding oil exports so that there's some left for his army and farming. The Russian army is still huge but only because repeated mobilisations, because it had big losses.
China is huge and Taiwan is small, yet the Chinese economy is starting to crumble like it was a bubble. And is Taiwan really worth the effort or it's just for bragging right ?
While no one is looking forward to a world war we might have one soon if the Korea thing happens.
I think we already have one. The are dozens of wars around the world and in the end the weapons and geostrategy come from few actors, so the only thing missing (fortunately) is a formal declaration of world war. But the other world wars were in the middle of industrialization expansionism, and they burned surplus, now we are in forced ungrowth and we can hardly afford to survive even without wars. We should be fighting climate change, pollution and loss of biodiversity, not each other.
Of course we shouldn't have fought each other in the previous world wars either.
Einstein said he didn't know how the WW III would be fought, but WW IV would be with sticks and stones. Well, we're almost at sticks and stones level, but we have some nukes, which makes it dangerous. But I guess the incumbents plan to dominate the west, not destroy it, or they would already have nuked it. Let's hope the west doesn't nuke first. Well, nobody really.
Well, some sources reported preparations in August:
https://www.nknews.org/pro/what-to-make-of-north-koreas-open-preparations-for-war-with-south-korea/
And South-Korea reported it wants to suspend some agreements to use additional surveillance:
https://m.koreatimes.co.kr/pages/article.asp?newsIdx=360848
"Seoul's new defense minister Shin Won-shik said he would push for the suspension of the military agreement. ... 'I will push for the suspension (of the Sept. 19 inter-Korean military agreement) as soon as possible,' he told the press, Tuesday, in his first meeting with reporters after taking office. 'I believe a complicated legislative process is needed to fully abandon the agreement, but suspending it only requires a decision from a Cabinet meeting.'"
And the 'rumor':
https://korea.postsen.com/world/226...by-North-Korea-using-Hamas-style-tactics.html
"On the 10th, the Joint Chiefs of Staff reported to the National Defense Committee of the National Assembly that North Korea is preparing for the possibility of launching a surprise attack using the same tactics as Hamas’ attack on Israel."
I don't know. For me Israel and Korea would look like very different places to use the same tactic, but I'm no expert.
I think the general theme is real economy doesn't work anymore, so leaders look for smoke screens, and wars make smoke. Authoritarian regimes are specially exposed, because democracy has a kind of legitimacy that reflects the guilt to voters for voting wrong (Even if that doesn't help getting food on the table), but tyrants are supposed to at least have their sllaves survive, if they can't offer that, they're in trouble.
Not very happy days.
