North Korea threatens 'retaliatory sacred war'

South Korean troops had used pictures of Kim Jong Il as target practice

North Korea has threatened to launch a "retaliatory sacred war" against South Korea after news emerged that southern soldiers had erected signs in military camps on the border slandering the North's “army, system and dignity”.

 

"This is little short of a clear declaration of war," a government spokesman said in the North's official Korean Central News Agency. "We will react to the enemy's provocation with a stern punishment and counter its war with a merciless retaliatory sacred war."

 

South Korea's Hankyoreh newspaper reported on Tuesday 28th June that some South Korean army units near the border had set up anti-North Korea slogans. One army unit in Cheolwon, a town near the demilitarized zone had a banner reading “Let's ram guns and swords into the chest of North Korean puppet soldiers!”

According to the newspaper, there were also signs saying “Let's hack the three Kims into pieces”, a reference to the late North Korean founder Kim Il Sung, his son and the current leader Kim Jong Il, and his grandson and heir-apparent Kim Jong Un.

The reference to the Kims is a particularly touchy subject at the moment, as North Korea threatened to attack last month after it emerged that South Korean troops were using photos of the family as targets during firing practice.

South Korea's Defence Ministry told military units to stop using the photos as targets in response to Pyongyang's reaction, but according to Time Magazine it has no immediate plans to stop troops from using anti-North Korean signs.

The Defence Ministry said some army units have taken such measures to bolster their soldiers' mental toughness against North Korea

Tensions have been high on the Korean peninsula since March 2010, when a South Korean warship was torpedoed, killing 46 sailors. A Seoul- and Washington-led international investigation found North Korea responsible, however Pyongyang has always denied its involvement.

A second incident occurred last November, when in response to South Korea carrying out live fire drills in disputed waters, North Korea shelled the South Korean border island of Yeonpyeong, killing four.

Despite the fact the two sides held talks on a stalled jointly-run tourism project at Mount Kumgang on Wednesday 29th June, Pyongyang has pledged to carry out unspecified military measures "mercilessly" until the South apologises for the signs.

While inflammatory rhetoric from both sides is nothing new, what makes the current situation alarming, according to the Guardian, is South Korea's hardline stance.

President Lee Myung-bak was criticised domestically for his supposedly weak response to the three previous incidents, and has threatened to respond harshly to any further attacks.

The South Korean military is preparing new rules of engagement which would allow its frontline troops to respond "robustly" to an attack without consulting Seoul, according to the Guardian.

There is also talk that instead of promising a "proportionate" response to North Korean aggression, it would chose an aggressive enough response to dissuade Pyongyang from further action.

South Korea has been upping its defensive capabilities in the border region, and have brought in Israeli-made Delilah missiles, which have a range of 150 miles: enough to hit Pyongyang.

Some analysts believe Pyongyang is upping the rhetoric because its offers to talks in the last few months have been ignored by the south.

"North Korea has been trying this peace offensive for the past seven months. Now is the time for the North Koreans to change their mode towards more a conflictual approach," a former South Korean official and government adviser predicted in the Guardian.

Some suspect Pyongyang will use a third nuclear test to get the other parties back to the negotiating table, but Seoul has said it will not return to talks until it recieves an apology for the previous incidents.

Sources: BBC News, the Guardian, Korea Herald, Time Magazine

For more information, please see the Menas Borders website, here.

 

South Korea to develop border islands



South Korea opts for the blue line, while North Korea argues for the red

The South Korean government has revealed plans to invest heavily in five islands near the border with North Korea, Prime Minister Kim Hwang Sik's office said on Wednesday 22nd June.

The 10-year, 910 billion won (US$848 million) plan will see investments in the security and living conditions on the islands of Yeonpyeong, Baengnyeong, Daecheong, Socheong and Udo.

Yeonpyeong island (labelled 1 on the map) was the site of a major confrontation between North and South Korea last November. The North's artillery attack on the island, following a Southern live fire military exercise, resulted in four people being killed and a number of buildings being destroyed.

All five islands are located just south of the UN-designed maritime border, the Northern Limit Line (NLL), which was established at the end of the Korean War (1950-1953). The North, however, does not recognise the NLL, and while it does not claim the islands themselves, it does claim the water around them.

The South's plan calls for efforts to stabilise the lives of the residents, as it is recognised that they live with considerable uncertainty, being located so close to the north.

Money will be provided to improve educational and medical access, and some 40 shelters will be built to improve security in the case of a North Korean attack.

Tourism and the fishery industry will also be invested in. The Prime Minister's office said “The plans will also be of great help in revitalizing the regional economy.”

Sources: Bloomberg, KBS World, Yonhap

For more information, please see the Menas Borders website, here.

 

South Korea begins military exercises despite North Korean warnings

Anti-war demonstrators in South Korea, 28th February

South Korea and the US have begun large-scale military exercises on Monday 28th February, despite North Korean warnings that it could trigger all-out war on the peninsula.

Every year South Korea and the US carry out training drills, and commanders insist they are purely defensive. About 12,800 US troops and 200,000 South Korean soldiers and reservists will take part.

The drills will last 11 days and will involve computer war games and live-fire exercises. The aim of the drills is to prepare South Korea for an attack by the North. It is also a rehearsal for emergency deployments of US forces in the event of a sudden attack on South Korea.

The last time South Korea and the US carried out training drills, in November 2010, North Korea reacted to live-fire exercises taking place in disputed waters by firing artillery shells at Yeonpyeong island, killing four.

The drills continued after the incident, raising tension on the divided peninsula to the highest level in years. Tension has been high since March 2010 when a South Korean warship was sunk, killing all 46 sailors on board. A Seoul-led international investigation blamed North Korea, a charge which Pyongyang denies.

Hours after the exercises started, North Korea warned of nuclear war.

"It's an anti-national scheme aimed at prolonging the stage of confrontation and tension to realise a plot to start a northward invasion," North Korea's main Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in a commentary carried by the official Korean central news agency. "The danger of a nuclear war on the Korean peninsula is deepening."

On Sunday, North Korea said that if provoked, its military would turn Seoul into a 'sea of flames' and would start a full-scale war with 'merciless' counterattacks.

South Korean officials dismissed Pyongyang's position. "Denouncing these kinds of drills as an aggression and provocation won't be a help to South-North Korea relations at all," Chun Hae-sung, a spokesman for the South Korean unification ministry, told reporters.

Not everyone in the South supports the drills, however. On Monday, about 20 anti-war activists rallied near a joint force command near Seoul, urging the South and the US to immediately halt the drills and resume talks with the North Korea.

North Korea has repeatedly pushed for talks, but when military officers from both sides met earlier this month, they failed to make any progress and a date for the next round of talks was not set.

The tension has led to conservative forces in South Korea calling for the redeployment of US tactical nuclear weapons. The White House coordinator for arms control and weapons of mass destruction, proliferation and terrorism, Gary Samore, said he believed the US would say yes if the South Korean government officially requested the redeployment.

The White House immediately countered by saying the US has no plans to bring tactical nuclear weapons back to the South, saying Washington continues to support a non-nuclear peninsula.

Another issue between the countries is Southern activists' distribution of leaflets into the North. Two and a half million leaflets were floated into the North in a balloon earlier this month. The leaflets carried messages ridiculing North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and calling for people to rise up against the government. The balloons also carried news of the Middle East uprsings. On 27th February, North Korea threatened to fire into the South if the propaganda balloon campaign was not halted.

The two countries are still technically in a state of war, as the 1950-3 Korean War has never officially finished. The land border between the two neighbours, the Demilitarised Zone, is along the 38th parallel.

The maritime border is the UN-designated Northern Limit Line, which Pyongyang believes restricts their access to marine territory. Indeed, it gives them a 3-mile territorial sea, even though the international norm is 12 miles. Since 1999, the North has been arguing in favour of a more southerly 'West Sea Military Demarcation'.

The military exercises that were carried out in November took place in this disputed area, and therefore it was unsurprising that the North reacted. It is not yet clear if this latest round of exercises will also take place in the area.

Sources: The Guardian, BBC News, Voice of America, The Korea Herald

For more information, see the Menas Borders website, here.

South Korea rejects North Korea's 'unconditional' talks offer



US envoy to North Korea Stephen Bosworth is in China for talks



A North Korean offer on 5th January for "unconditional and early" talks in an effort to ease tensions has been quickly dismissed by South Korea.

The North Korean statement, carried by its KCNA news agency said it “courteously proposes having wide-ranging dialogue and negotiations”.

An official at the Unification Ministry in Seoul said, however, that it was not a serious proposal for dialogue, adding the offer was part of a propaganda campaign.

Reuters new agency quoted a ministry official as saying, “North Korea previously issued statements like this early in the year... they are normally done as part of [a] propaganda campaign toward the South."

"We do not consider this is as a serious proposal for dialogue. It is not even in the correct and appropriate format."

South Korean foreign ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-joo said they wanted Pyongyang to first apologise for the North Korean artillery attack that killed four South Koreans in late November and for the sinking of a South Korean warship in March, which Pyongyang denies.

China, North Korea's major ally, has welcomed Pyongyang's statement.

"We support and welcome relevant parties to have contact and dialogue, and make active interactions to jointly steer the situation to a desirable direction," foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters.

"China always believes that dialogue and consultation are the only effective approach to solving peninsula-related issues. China will continue to play a constructive role to this end."

South Korea's major ally, the US, has been less welcoming. Stephen Bosworth, the top US official on North Korea, is currently in China, trying to establish a fresh round of diplomacy on the issue. The US has said however that the North must indicate that it is serious about ending its provocations before talks could resume.

Tensions have been high in the Korean peninsula since November when South Korean military exercises in disputed waters provoked a North Korean artillery attack on Yeonpyeong Island.

Sources: Telegraph, Guardian, BBC News

For more information on the North Korea - South Korea dispute, please see the menas borders website, here.

Trouble between the Koreas rumbles on

It has been just over a week since the most recent trouble between North and South Korea broke out, and the political posturing – and military manoeuvring – continues.

South Korea's intelligence chief is reported to have said they think that North Korea is very likely to attack again. Won Sei-hoon, director of South Korea's National Intelligence Service, was quoted by South Korea's Yonhap news agency saying “There is a high possibility that the North will make another attack”.

It must be considered, however, whether Seoul would have to take some of the blame if the North did attack, as their actions, and those of their ally, the US, seem very provocative. The South Koreans are building up their defences on Yeonpyeong island, the site of the conflict, and the US has sent warships, fighter jets and more than 6,000 personnel to the area, where 70,000 South Korean troops are already present.

On 28th November, the US and South Korea began carrying out joint military exercises in the disputed area. Beijing has expressed its anger at the joint military exercises. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said on 26th November, “We hold a consistent and clear-cut stance on the issue. We oppose any party to take any military acts in our exclusive economic zone without permission.”

In July 2010, some 20 US warships and 200 planes carried out similar manoeuvres with the South Korean military in the waters bordering both North Korea and China, according to the International Action Center. The nuclear powered carrier, the USS George Washington, which carries 75 fighter jets and is currently in the Yellow Sea area, also took part in the July exercises. Beijing expressed their displeasure to the exercises at the time, and it must be asked why they need to carry out two major military exercises within such a short time frame.

Much of the Yellow Sea area is disputed by the two Koreas. A US-led UN team awarded it to South Korea following the 1950-53 Korean War, but North Korea has never acknowledged the boundary, known as the Northern Limit Line. It believes Yeonpyeong Island, and the waters surrounding it, to be North Korean territory.

The US and South Korea have also rejected China's calls for the resumption of the six-nation talks on ending North Korea's nuclear programme. The BBC suggests that Seoul and Washington are anxious to avoid the impression that bad behaviour from the North will be rewarded with talks or offers of aid.
Talks have been stalled since April 2009, but Pyongyang has recently expressed interest in restarting them. The US has said that talks cannot resume until North Korea apologises for the torpedoing of a South Korean warship in March, and stops further nuclear enrichment plants from operating. North Korea has denied any involvement in the sinking of the corvette Cheonan.

Others in South Korea, however, have suggested the worst may be over. "There will be ongoing measures to beef up our forces including the stationing of new weapons, upgrading our marines on Yeonpyeong island but I think on this particular crisis we are reaching the apex and we will see a gradual de-escalation," Chung Min Lee, ambassador for international security affairs, is reported by the BBC to have said.

Sources: BBC News, International Action Center

For more information on North Korea and South Korea dispute, see the menas borders website.

Border Focus: North and South Korea

A South Koreans soldier patrols the DMZ

What is disputed?

In essence, the whole peninsula is disputed, as both the North and the South theoretically seek reunification upon their own ideological lines: neoliberal social democracy for the South and a militant communism for the North. But reunification has become an increasingly distant dream over the past half century as the systems have become fully entrenched in their respective spheres. On a more immediate basis, tension between the two countries centres around their border onshore, the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), and their UN-designed maritime border, the Northern Limit Line (NLL).

What is the history of the dispute?The two Koreas were unified until the end of World War II. They were governed by the Korean Empire until it was brought under the Japanese sphere of influence following the Russo-Japanese War of 1905, and it was eventually annexed in 1910.

It was divided into Soviet and American occupied zones along the 38th parallel, when the Japanese were forced to relinquish control at the end of World War II. UN-supervised elections were held in the south in 1948, but when the North refused to participate, separate governments were created for each area.

Both nations, however, continued to claim sovereignty over the Korean Peninsula as a whole, and this led to the Korean War (1950-53), when the Soviet–backed North Koreans invaded. The UN, and especially the US, came to the defence of the South, and they succeeded in pushing the North’s troops beyond the original border. Fresh from its own civil war, Communist China came to the North’s defence and an 1953 armistice re-established the border near the 38th parallel. The Armistice Agreement of 1953 ended the fighting, but both nations are officially still at war as a peace treaty was never signed.

In the ceasefire of 1953, the DMZ was created, when each side agreed to move their troops back 2km from what had been the front line, creating a buffer zone 4km wide. The Military Demarcation Line (MDL) indicates exactly where the front was when the agreement was signed.

The MDL was extended into the sea by the US-led UN military forces after the ceasefire, and this Northern Limit Line now serves as the de facto maritime boundary. The 1953 Armistice Agreement specified that the UN Command (ie South Korea) would retain control of five islands, including Yeonpyeong and Baengnyeong Islands. The NLL was not part of the actual Armistice Agreement because the two sides could not agree how the territorial sea should be measured: the UN favoured three nautical miles, while the North favoured 12. The NLL, unsurprisingly, adopts the UN preferred option.

While both sides acknowledge the DMZ as the border between the two, the North does not accept the NLL, and since 1999 has been arguing in favour of a more southerly ‘West Sea Military Demarcation’.

How serious is the dispute?

The dispute between the two Korea’s is very serious, not only for the people living on the peninsula, but because any dispute between the two threatens to involve their international backers: the US for the South and China for the North.

Since the 1950s the tension on the peninsula has remained high and there have been numerous border clashes. A series of low-level armed clashes around the DMZ area between 1966-69 has been called the Second Korean War by some; there have been numerous assassination attempts on South Korean presidents by the North; and the North has dug at least four tunnels crossing under the DMZ in what appears to be preparation for a military strike. The North claims that they are for coal mining, and the walls have been painted black to give the appearance of coal.

The South, and their American allies are not innocent either, and there have been numerous incidents of American helicopters and other aircrafts invading northern airspace. They have been shot down on at least two occasions.

There have been political wrangling as well as military, including the bizarre 'flagpole war' of the 1980s. The South Korean government installed a 98.4m tall flagpole with a 130kg South Korean flag in Daeseong-dong, a South Korean town that lies within the DMZ. In retaliation, the North promptly built what was then the tallest flatpole in the world at 160m, with a 270kg North Korean flag, near Panmunjom, the town on the MDL where the Armistice talks took place in 1953.

Also on the MDL is the Joint Security Area (JSA), where all negotations since 1953 have taken place. Amusingly, the area has been built so that the MDL goes through conference rooms, and even down the middle of conference tables, so North and South Koreans can meet face to face while remaining on their own jurisdiction.

The NLL has also been the cause of numerous disputes. The fact that it enforces a 3 nautical mile territorial sea has prevented the North from accessing its rightful Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), as dictated under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. As a result, the North does not recognise the line, and its fishing boats consistently work close to, or over, the limit line, often escorted by North Korean naval boats.


What has happened in recent years?

Relations began to improve in the early 1990s, with the 1991 'Agreement on Reconciliation, Nonaggression and Exchanges and Cooperation between the South and the North' (also known as the ‘Basic Agreement’) which acknowledged that reunification was the goal of both governments, and the 1992 'Joint Declaration of the Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula'.