By Lee Tae-hoon
South Korea’s military will remain on full alert for a possible North Korean attack as tension grew Tuesday following the lighting up of a giant “Christmas tower” near the border with North Korea for the first time in seven years.
“The military plans to remain on high alert and prepare for an immediate counterattack until the risk of enemy provocations is substantially reduced,” Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin said in a National Assembly session.
Kim noted that if the North, which regards religion as a security threat, launches an artillery attack against the Christmas tree, the South Korean military will wipe out the troops responsible for the shelling.
He said the military will be ready to respond to sudden North Korean attacks at a level that it set during Monday’s live-fire exercise on Yeonpyeong Island.
The South mobilized K-9 self-propelled howitzers, Vulcan guns, a 7,600-ton guided-missile Aegis destroyer as well as other warships, and F-15K fighter jets during the 94-minute drill.
Kim underlined that the North would not dare to start a full-scale war.
“It is unlikely that the North would wage an all-out war as the odds are against it,” he said
However, when asked about the possibility of the North’s provocations, he pointed out that Pyongyang would seek a surprise attack against Seoul if the latter lets its guard down.
“There is always a chance that the North undertakes provocative acts,” Kim said. “The enemy will prefer to carry out a surprise attack at a time when we are relaxed.”
The Seoul-based Full Gospel Church had placed Christmas lights on a steel tower at a mountain peak, known as Aegibong, every year between 1954 and 2003.
They had been barred from doing so since 2004 under an agreement with the North to end border propaganda activity.
The government has decided to allow the church to resume its annual ritual following a series of North Korean provocations, including the torpedoing of a South Korean frigate on March 26, and the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island on Nov. 23. Officials say the glowing Christmas lights on Aegibong peak, which is located just across a border river that separates the two Koreas, can be seen from as far as the North Korean town of Gaeseong, where a joint inter-Korean industrial complex is located.
On Monday, the North hinted that it may refrain from any immediate retaliation, saying, “We have no interest in responding to each one of such despicable military provocations.”
Critics, however, say the Aegibong lights may further escalate inter-Korean tensions and trigger an armed clash between the two Koreas. The communist North had accused the South of displaying Christmas lights to spread religion among its people and soldiers.