The Islamic State’s Terrorism and the SAFETY of KOREA and JAPAN

The purpose of this study is to review the state of terrorism by the Islamic State(IS), purpose of terrorism, goal, origin, growth, operation, characteristics, combatants, weapons and finance, and analyze the IS’ organized activities and prospects of terrorist activities to further learn about the level of its threat against Korea and Japan in Northeast Asia. As a result of this study, the possibility of terrorism by the IS in Korea and Japan is as follows. First, there are background factors, trigger factors, and opportunity factors, which influence the multi-cultural society of Korea and Japan, underprivileged class, and North Korean defectors. Due to the prejudice and discrimination practiced against the second generation immigrants of these classes, foreign workers may be deemed to have developed into terrorist forces by interacting with the propaganda of the IS through social media, etc. In addition, the underprivileged classes such as the homeless, disabled, runaway teens, and low income class may fall easily into the ideologies of the Islamic extremism in order to find a breakthrough amidst the discrimination and prejudice, according to the analysis. Second, as for the trigger factors, if the US dispatches its troops to Iraq or Syria in order to destroy the IS, a public enemy, at the request of the US, those who fell under the radicalism would possibly lead terrorist attacks against western facilities across Korea and Japan, according to the analysis. Third, as for the opportunity factors, the number of Internet users in Korea and Japan is continually increasing, and in the environment which is called a country of great strength in the IT, they may be used as a medium for praising jihad and propagating ideologies of extremism to those who are dissatisfied with the society or those affected by the Islamic fundamentalism, thereby facilitating radical behaviors, according to the analysis.