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| PM on Yeonpyeong: Prime Minister Chung Hong-won, right, looks at areas in North Korea during a visit to Yeonpyeong Island in the West Sea, Thursday. The North shelled the island in November 2010, killing two marines and two civilians. Yonhap |
By Chung Min-uck
North Korea, while stepping up its bellicose rhetoric has shown no signs of follow through, raising questions about its motives.
Experts believe the Stalinist regime is still hoping for the new South Korean administration to shift the current hard-line North Korea policies from the previous government.
"Pyongyang is creating a sense of crisis by verbally threatening to launch a military attack," said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, Thursday. "However, it refrained from directly mentioning the name of the South Korean president, meaning it is also expecting a policy shift to engagement."
North Korea took its first official verbal swipe at President Park Geun-hye, Wednesday, saying her "venomous skirt swish" is making South Korean officials engage in "warmongering."
The derogatory Korean-language term is often used to describe mothers who get overly involved in their children's activities.
The criticism apparently targeted Park but is considered minor since no names were mentioned.
In recent weeks, Pyongyang has repeatedly threatened Seoul and Washington, announcing it would nullify the Armistice Agreement that halted the Korean War (1950-53). The reclusive regime also said it will no longer honor non-aggression pacts reached between the two Koreas in the past because of the joint South Korea-U.S. Key Resolve military exercise that began Monday.
Aside from this, Park's North Korean policy, dubbed "trustpolitik" or "The Korean Peninsula Trust-building Process," calls for engagement through building mutual respect by keeping all promises that can lead to more stable relations.
Such efforts for cooperation have yet to be launched following Pyongyang's latest nuclear test.
Officials here say harsh statements made by the North should not be underestimated.
"North Korea is always ready for a military attack to achieve what it wants. The statements made should not be taken lightly," said a unification ministry official on condition of anonymity. "Right now, what we need is a deterrent against North Korea's possible provocations, instead of an engagement policy."
The official also warned of a possible military attack by the North after the joint military drill ends on March 21.
According to the Korean Central News Agency, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on visited artillery units targeting South Korean islands in the West Sea. Kim also oversaw live ammunition drills to test the capabilities of artillery batteries under real battle conditions, said the North's state media. It said the units are focusing on the islands of Baengnyeong and Yeonpyeong, which lie just south of the Northern Limit Line (NLL), the de facto sea border between the two Koreas. The North does not recognize the NLL and has tried to impose its own demarcation line, which has been rejected by Seoul.
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