It is a conflict that has never been buried – the conflict between the two Koreas. A people divided. Families divided. A country divided – literally.

It is a bizarre state of affairs. The democratic South has consistently tried to approach its communist neighbour in the north to encourage dialogue, but the reclusive north is a law unto itself.

Part of George W. Bush’s infamous Axis of Evil, North Korea is impoverished, backward and ruled by the iron fist of Kim Jong Il, son of founder Kim Il Sung. It has a standing army of one million men and it is toying with nuclear power, weapons and long range missiles.

Make no mistake. The North is a rogue. The two Koreas have remained at war since the 1950s when the United Nations entered the Korean Peninsula war. The South was about to fall but the UN pushed the Koreans back into a small pocket in the North, after a masterstroke invasion by sea.

China then joined the fray and the Koreas were eventually divided at the 38th parallel, roughly half way through the peninsula.

South Korea has tried it all. It has tried setting up a business park in the North, sending food aid, money… the lot. The North has always resisted. But tensions were ratched up a few notches when the North began to experiment with nuclear technology. Aid was suspended and many nations, led by the US condemned the North for its devious dealings on nuclear technology.

In return, the North has provoked the South by first exchanging borded fire in the demilitarized zone. Then one of its submarines sank a South Korean navy boat – with substantial loss of life.

Now it has shelled a South Korean island. Civilians and military personnel were amongst those killed.

To think that this is a faraway conflict is foolish. In today’s day and age, everything has a ripple effect. The markets jittered, stocks lost value and the world economy suffered yet another nerve jangling stutter.

Kim Jong Il continues to prepare his son’s succession. Perhaps this is his way of ensuring that the next leader will keep the North as it is. A misfit and a recluse. Perhaps in the twisted mind of this dictator, by doing what the North is doing now, it might stop Kim Jong Un from being able to make any form of reconciliation with the international community very difficult. Perhaps in sparking a war, Kim Jong Il is securing his, and his vision of the North’s legacy – a hobnail-boot dictatatorship, where its people are kept in the dark… and left to starve.