Why is North Korea provoking South Korea?

Martin

The Korean War never really ended so they are still fighting each other. The 38th Parallel where the north and south are divided is the most heavily guarded border in the world so there is a lot of tension between the two Koreas. The north korean leader Kim-Jong-il still wants to unite the two koreas which means they would both become communist which would trigger the domino effect which is "If one country falls to communism all around it will become communists as well."

Mark F

Revenge for South Korea sinking a North Korean ship last year probably. I notice nobody was crying about that when it happened.

MSG Brad

The DPRK is rattling its sabers to draw attention away from all their other problems, not the least of which is that they cannot feed their own people. All they have is threats, and they know that they get stomped if they push too far.
If they push too far they will get one of their main goals, but not in the way they planned. North Korea wants a reunified Korean peninsula and if they push too far it will be reunified but under South Korea.

Professor Coldheart!

It's not "happening now." They've been at each other for decades. This conflict was just larger than previous skirmishes -- that's why everyone is talking about it.

Edit: Heavy makes some great points. Also, Kim Jong-Il has been very ill over the last couple of years. Last year, there were reports of further strokes and advanced cancer. I wouldn't be surprised at all if it wasn't a magician's trick -- look at my left hand so you stop paying attention to my right!

Docker

This happens like twice a year, when they need something they start threaten someone until we or the UN give them food, oil whatever and then their quite again for awhile.

axe

they have been provoking south korea on a near continuous basis that seems to have increased in recent years, they have learned that the more bullying they do, the more the international community will give to them in the form of aid to try to pacify them to some degree, they also know that with their alliance with china,it is unlikely the us or south korea would retaliate knowing china would likely get involved if the north were to be invaded or seriously attacked

Heavy_Cavalry_Sgt

They do this sort of thing occasionally. It is probably partly to test the South Korean responses and readiness, partly to score propaganda points, partly to prove to the world the North Korea is still a force to be considered instead of a nation on a slide to irrelevancy.

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