>> I'm going to confess something.
I'm going to preface it with the idea that I think I'm a relatively knowledgeable person.
I know a lot about a little; I know a little about a lot.
However, up until recently, I thought that Korea was an island.
It is not an island.
It is a peninsula connected to China.
I give this example to explain that I am woefully unaware of global-scale ideas.
I don't think I'm alone on this.
We are surrounded by conflict in our daily lives.
Global conflict is big; it's global.
It seems scary; it seems hopeless.
It's easy to hide from it because it doesn't feel like it directly involves you.
However, it is important to have a base knowledge of conflict,
global conflicts specifically, because the only way to resolve conflict is to be informed of it.
And, therefore, you can share your knowledge with others in hopes of resolving the conflict.
One issue that's prominent today is the conflict between North Korea and the world.
I'm going to discuss some of the 4 core aspects that you need to have
in order to understand this conflict.
First, we need to know the history and the division of Korea.
Then the internal conflict called the Korean War.
The current state of affairs between North and South Korea.
And, finally, the current state of affairs between North Korea and the world.
The history of the conflict as prepared by Roland Bleiker --
he's a professor at Queensland College School of Political Science and World Conflict.
He talks about the Japanese empire ruling Korea from 1910 to 1914.
The Japanese treated the Koreans in similar ways as the Europeans did to the Native Americans.
They stripped them of their names, of their culture,
of their ability to educate their children, and their basic identities.
After World War 2, the Japanese surrendered Korea.
The Soviet Union took control of North Korea, introducing communistic rule.
And the United States took control of South Korea, introducing democratic rule.
Since Korea had already been stripped of its individual identity, it was very easy for them
to adapt their respective ruler's ideals, their values, as well as their behaviors.
Because the North and South now have very opposing belief systems,
this led to the internal conflict of the Korean War.
Michael Hickey of the BBC outlines the basic concepts of the Korean War,
which will further our understanding to the Korean conflict.
For 5 years after World War 2, the 2 sides bullied and skirmished along the 38th parallel,
which is the arbitrary division between North and South Korea.
This caused tensions to continuously rise over those 5 years.
The war began when South Korea declared its independence
and North Korea then invaded the South due to pressures from the Soviet Union.
In 1950, the Korea War officially began.
China and the Soviet Union sent aid to North Korea while the U.S. and other members
of the United Nations supported and brought aid to the South.
The war ended in 1953 after the loss of an estimated 2 million lives.
It ended with an uneasy and temporary truce between the North and the South.
Now we come to some of this current state of affairs.
The current status of Korea has been closely scrutinized by Robert Park,
a human rights activist and the founder
of The Worldwide Coalition to Stop Genocide in North Korea.
He discusses the human rights violations in North Korea.
Kim Jong-un is the current and infallible leader.
In every aspect of the entire population, his word is law.
He has the ultimate word.
Therefore, North Korea is cut off from the rest of the world.
There's no Internet.
There's little to no contact with the outside world.
This is a problem.
Since 1990, between 2 and 3 1/2 million people have died of starvation
from the great famine because they are so cut off.
They do not want aid from anywhere else.
And because they have a limited amount of resources, people are dying.
In the beginning of the famine, it was a naturally induced famine.
Now it's become a state enforced famine where what little food there is is given
to the military where the civilians are left to starve.
Also, an estimated 1/4 million of the civilians are forced
into slave labor called work camps in North Korea.
In Park's words, they're subjected to systematic torture and rape; brutal, forced abortions;
biological and public executions; and much more.
Because the majority of North Korean's money goes towards their military.
In the wake of the general population,
the civilians are denied basic human rights such as food.
Because of these massive ongoing human rights violations,
North Korea conflict now involves the entire world.
The current state of affairs between North Korea and the United Nations are described
by Andrew Wolman, a Professor of International Studies in South Korea.
He discusses South Korea's new president, Park Geun-hye is striving
to bring peace between the 2 countries.
In February 2014, there was a meeting between the representatives of North and South Korea.
This meeting has -- meetings between the 2 has not happened since 2010.
However, despite this attempt for peace, North Korea has made missile and nuclear threats
to South Korea, Japan, and the United States.
They make both vocal and physical threats.
North Korea continues to test missiles
and nuclear weapons despite UNs call for an immediate halt of both.
This conflict is continuing to the minute.
Daily, there are new reports of conflict between North
and South Korea and North Korea and the world.
Recently, the BBC reported that North Korea fired mid-range missiles without UN consent.
The date they were fired is important.
It marks the 4-year anniversary of an unprovoked North Korean attack
on a South Korean sub killing 46 South Korea military members.
In order to understand and discuss the conflict between North and South Korea,
one must have a basic understanding of the history and division of Korea.
The Korean War.
The current status of North Korea and South Korea.
And the current status between North Korea and the entire world.
This information is not meant to scare or warn anyone of impending doom.
It's so you have a basic understanding of one instance of world conflict.
It is hard to want to learn about this.
We are involved in so much conflict.
But it is important to remember that conflict does not cease
to exist if we do not acknowledge it.
Hopefully this speech allows you to have an informed discussion
and bring more factual evidence to discussions that involve parties of the conflict.
We are more likely to find a resolution if we are informed.
Thank you.