The tension between the United States and North Korea has existed for years, but has intensified since Donald Trump took over the White House in January of this year. Donald Trump maintains more combative management than his predecessor, Barack Obama, and threatens to attack the Asian country if the Pyongyang regime continues with its military tests. Yesterday, Trump ordered the launch of a bomb against Afghanistan to reach terrorist targets of the Islamic State. The explosive had almost 11 tons of TNT and is considered the most powerful bomb, behind only nuclear. Experts saw in the attack an attempt by Washington to demonstrate to its enemies its military power.

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THE RISK OF WAR AMONG THE UNITED STATES AND NORTH KOREA
Fernando Alcoforado *
Between 1950 and 1953 occurred the Korean War which was an armed conflict between
South Korea and North Korea. This war was part of the geopolitical dispute between the
United States and the Soviet Union. It was the first armed conflict of the Cold War,
causing worldwide apprehension because there was an imminent risk of a nuclear war
due to the direct involvement between the two military superpowers of the time.
It should be noted that after the end of World War II with the surrender and withdrawal
of Japanese troops, the north became an ally of the Soviets, while the south came under
US influence. This division has generated conflicts between the two Koreas. After
several attempts to overthrow the South Korean government, North Korea invaded
South Korea on June 25, 1950. North Korean troops conquered Seoul (capital of South
Korea). Soon after the North Korean invasion, the United Nations sent troops into the
region to expel the North Koreans and return the command of Seoul to the South
Koreans.
The United States entered the war alongside South Korea, while China (allied with the
Soviet Union) sent troops into the conflict zone to support North Korea. In 1953, South
Korea, backed by the United States and other capitalist countries, won several military
victories. Bloody conflicts took place in Korean territory, causing the death of
approximately 4 million people, most of whom were civilians. In July 1953, The US
government threatened to use nuclear weapons against North Korea and China in case
the war was not ended with the North Korean surrender. On March 28, 1953, North
Korea and China accepted the United Nations peace proposal.
With the end of the war, the two Koreas remained divided and the geopolitical conflicts
continued, although there was no military confrontation. North Korea currently remains
with the communist regime, while South Korea remains in the capitalist system. At the
present time, the United States and North Korea are one step away from the war whose
conflict can start at any moment. After a week of threatening exchanges between the
United States and North Korea, a war can start anytime in the region. In an eventual war
between the United States and North Korea there will be no winners.
The tension between the United States and North Korea has existed for years, but has
intensified since Donald Trump took over the White House in January of this year.
Donald Trump maintains more combative management than his predecessor, Barack
Obama, and threatens to attack the Asian country if the Pyongyang regime continues
with its military tests. Yesterday, Trump ordered the launch of a bomb against
Afghanistan to reach terrorist targets of the Islamic State. The explosive had almost 11
tons of TNT and is considered the most powerful bomb, behind only nuclear. Experts
saw in the attack an attempt by Washington to demonstrate to its enemies its military
power.
Russia, too, has expressed concern about the situation and is following the facts. One of
the greatest allies of the United States in Asia, Japan has already begun to analyze the
possibilities of a war. The North Korean Armed Forces have announced they are willing
to take the toughest measures against the United States if Donald Trump's government
continues with the provocations.

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Historians assume that there have been always wars because in the documented record
of human history, dating back 6,000 years, there has been only 292 years of relative
peace between peoples. This period of time of 55 centuries, however, is only a particle
of the total time of human presence on Earth. It can be said that humanity has evolved
up to the present moment from the stage of savagery to that of barbarism. Savagery is a
stage characteristic of primitive societies or peoples. The term barbarism has two
distinct but connected meanings: lack of civilization and cruelty of barbarian. In the last
150 years, barbarism has increased steadily. Year by year, decade by decade, violence
and contempt for the human being have increased, there seems to be no limit to this
phenomenon. Something much worse: the men and women have become accustomed to
barbarism and there is no astonishment, strangeness, or horror at inhuman acts. The
great challenge of the contemporary era is to make mankind evolve from the stage of
barbarism in which it stands at the present time to that of civilization.
Civilization is considered the most advanced stage of a given human society. There are
some elements generally accepted by all about what would make a civilized society: 1)
provide guaranteed security for all citizens who should not fear loss of their lives or
physical harm; 2) provide medical care of the best possible quality to all members of
society; 3) grant access to food and water to all citizens so that no one goes hungry or
thirsty; 4) provide the basic housing conditions for all citizens; 5) have a democratic
legislative system whose laws are established to preserve the well-being of the
population; 6) provide an educational system that guarantees equal access to high-level
education for all people with a view to making their population highly educated; 7)
ensure for the population freedom of thought, belief, religion, affiliation and expression;
And 8) guarantee the right of the population to participate in government decisions.
The time has come for humanity to equip itself, as urgently as possible, with the
instruments necessary to control its destiny and to put into practice a democratic
governance of the world. This is the only way to end wars and terrorism and, ultimately,
to stop the ongoing decline of humanity. A democratic governance of the world is
extremely necessary because there is no other means capable of building a world in
which every woman, every man of today and tomorrow has the same rights and duties,
and in which the interests of the planet and all the nations, of all life forms and of future
generations, are finally taken into account.
The fundamental role of the democratic governance of the world would be the conquest
and maintenance of world peace and of building the governance of the economy and the
global environment. Through it, the defense of the general interests of the planet would
be pursued. It would ensure that each state respects the rights of every citizen of the
world in order to prevent the spread of global economic and environmental systemic
risks. It would avoid the empire of one and the anarchy of all. The preservation of peace
is the first mission of any new form of world governance. Such governance can only
result from consensus among all peoples and nations of the world. This would be the
way to avoid wars and terrorism and to promote the convergence of all the peoples of
the world around a common goal.
Today, the world is faced with a humanitarian debacle. Humanity has to understand that
it has everything to gain by uniting around democratic governance in the world
representative of the interests of nations, including the most powerful, controlling the
world in its totality in time and space. The new world order to be built must organize

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not only relations between men on the face of the Earth, but also their relations with
nature. It is necessary, therefore, to formulate a planetary social contract that enables
economic and social development and the rational use of natural resources for the
benefit of all mankind. The construction of a new world order based on these principles
is urgent.
* Fernando Alcoforado, member of the Bahia Academy of Education, engineer and doctor of Territorial
Planning and Regional Development from the University of Barcelona, a university professor and
consultant in strategic planning, business planning, regional planning and planning of energy systems, is
the author of Globalização (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1997), De Collor a FHC- O Brasil e a Nova
(Des)ordem Mundial (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1998), Um Projeto para o Brasil (Editora Nobel, São
Paulo, 2000), Os condicionantes do desenvolvimento do Estado da Bahia (Tese de doutorado.
Universidade de Barcelona, http://www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/1944, 2003), Globalização e
Desenvolvimento (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2006), Bahia- Desenvolvimento do Século XVI ao Século XX
e Objetivos Estratégicos na Era Contemporânea (EGBA, Salvador, 2008), The Necessary Conditions of
the Economic and Social Development-The Case of the State of Bahia (VDM Verlag Dr. Muller
Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG, Saarbrücken, Germany, 2010), Aquecimento Global e Catástrofe
Planetária (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2010), Amazônia Sustentável-
Para o progresso do Brasil e combate ao aquecimento global (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do
Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2011), Os Fatores Condicionantes do Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social
(Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2012), Energia no Mundo e no Brasil- Energia e Mudança Climática
Catastrófica no Século XXI (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2015) and As Grandes Revoluções Científicas,
Econômicas e Sociais que Mudaram o Mundo (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2016).