Disillusioned South Korea weighs response to North Korean flare-up
| Seoul, South Korea
South Korea鈥檚 President Lee Myung-bak, in an address to the nation Monday, denounced North Korea鈥檚 attack on a remote island in the Yellow Sea nearly one week ago as 鈥渁 crime against humanity.鈥�
Mr. Lee, talking on South Korea鈥檚 television networks, said he could hardly 鈥渃ontain [his] anger over the North Korean regime鈥檚 cruelty鈥� in a bombardment that killed four people, including two civilians and two South Korean marines.
Moments after he spoke, North Korea again fired off a rhetorical blast against the United States and South Korean naval exercises in the Yellow Sea, 50 miles south of the scene, promising 鈥渕erciless punishment.鈥�
While the war of words raged between North and South Korea, the flotilla, led by the aircraft carrier George Washington, conducted what a South Korean military spokesman said were 鈥渉igh intensity鈥� war games featuring mock attacks and target practice 鈥渙n a 24-hour basis.鈥�
The exercises are to wind up Wednesday, but concerns about the will of the South Koreans and the Americans to defend the South effectively were sure to persist. 鈥淚t鈥檚 just rhetoric,鈥� says Chang Ki-tak, a retired businessman, after listening to Lee鈥檚 speech. 鈥淚t was a hard-line speech, but anybody can say those things.鈥�
On the streets of Seoul, clouds of concern seem to have cast a shadow over the lives of people who might prefer to shrug off the attack on Yeonpyeong Island as an isolated episode, one of a series since the Korean War ended in an armistice 鈥� not a peace treaty 鈥� in July 1953.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 the second attack we鈥檝e had in recent months,鈥� says Lee Nam-bok, a housewife otherwise preoccupied with making kimchi, the fermented and pickled vegetable that is traditionally made at this time of year. 鈥淥ur president said the same thing after the attack on the Cheonan鈥� 鈥� the naval vessel that was split in two by a torpedo and sank with a loss of the lives of 46 sailors in March.
The ambivalence of the South Koreans about how to retaliate for these attacks, or stave off another one, was evident in the conflicting signals about South Korea鈥檚 defense of the island.
First came a report that the South had positioned long-range artillery and rockets on the island and would conduct a drill. Then the South canceled the drill, clearly not wanting to risk a provocation that would give North Korea a pretext for another artillery barrage against the island or several other islands strung out within six to eight miles of the North Korean coastline.
Lee鈥檚 speech, cast as a strongly worded warning, reflected the disillusionment shared by many South Koreans after numerous attempts at getting North Korea to give up its hostile military-first policy as well as it nuclear program.
All South Korea got in return, Lee said, was 鈥渘uclear development and the artillery shelling of Yeonpyeong Island." As a result, he went on, 鈥淲e know that it is difficult to expect North Korea to abandon its nuclear program and military brinkmanship on its own.鈥�
An underlying concern was the real commitment of the US to the defense of its South Korean ally, despite the show of force of the naval exercise.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 a very delicate issue,鈥� says Kim Tae-woo, longtime analyst at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses. 鈥淭he key question is: Will the US intervene? The US may want to limit its responsibility and intervention.鈥�
