The Korea Times
amn_close.png
amn_bl.png
National
  • Politics
  • Foreign Affairs
  • Multicultural Community
  • Defense
  • Environment & Animals
  • Law & Crime
  • Society
  • Health & Science
amn_bl.png
Business
  • Tech
  • Bio
  • Companies
amn_bl.png
Finance
  • Companies
  • Economy
  • Markets
  • Cryptocurrency
amn_bl.png
Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Columns
  • Thoughts of the Times
  • Cartoon
  • Today in History
  • Blogs
  • Tribune Service
  • Blondie & Garfield
  • Letter to President
  • Letter to the Editor
amn_bl.png
Lifestyle
  • Travel & Food
  • Trends
  • People & Events
  • Books
  • Around Town
  • Fortune Telling
amn_bl.png
Entertainment & Arts
  • K-pop
  • Films
  • Shows & Dramas
  • Music
  • Theater & Others
amn_bl.png
Sports
amn_bl.png
World
  • SCMP
  • Asia
amn_bl.png
Video
  • Korean Storytellers
  • POPKORN
  • Culture
  • People
  • News
amn_bl.png
Photos
  • Photo News
  • Darkroom
amn_NK.png amn_DR.png amn_LK.png amn_LE.png
  • bt_fb_on_2022.svgbt_fb_over_2022.svg
  • bt_twitter_on_2022.svgbt_twitter_over_2022.svg
  • bt_youtube_on_2022.svgbt_youtube_over_2022.svg
  • bt_instagram_on_2022.svgbt_instagram_over_2022.svg
The Korea Times
amn_close.png
amn_bl.png
National
  • Politics
  • Foreign Affairs
  • Multicultural Community
  • Defense
  • Environment & Animals
  • Law & Crime
  • Society
  • Health & Science
amn_bl.png
Business
  • Tech
  • Bio
  • Companies
amn_bl.png
Finance
  • Companies
  • Economy
  • Markets
  • Cryptocurrency
amn_bl.png
Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Columns
  • Thoughts of the Times
  • Cartoon
  • Today in History
  • Blogs
  • Tribune Service
  • Blondie & Garfield
  • Letter to President
  • Letter to the Editor
amn_bl.png
Lifestyle
  • Travel & Food
  • Trends
  • People & Events
  • Books
  • Around Town
  • Fortune Telling
amn_bl.png
Entertainment & Arts
  • K-pop
  • Films
  • Shows & Dramas
  • Music
  • Theater & Others
amn_bl.png
Sports
amn_bl.png
World
  • SCMP
  • Asia
amn_bl.png
Video
  • Korean Storytellers
  • POPKORN
  • Culture
  • People
  • News
amn_bl.png
Photos
  • Photo News
  • Darkroom
amn_NK.png amn_DR.png amn_LK.png amn_LE.png
  • bt_fb_on_2022.svgbt_fb_over_2022.svg
  • bt_twitter_on_2022.svgbt_twitter_over_2022.svg
  • bt_youtube_on_2022.svgbt_youtube_over_2022.svg
  • bt_instagram_on_2022.svgbt_instagram_over_2022.svg
  • Login
  • Register
  • Login
  • Register
  • The Korea Times
  • search
  • all menu
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • Photos
  • Video
  • World
  • Sports
  • Opinion
  • Entertainment & Art
  • Lifestyle
  • Finance
  • Business
  • National
  • North Korea
  • 1

    Major webtoon platforms' fight against piracy

  • 3

    Samsung unveils new Galaxy S23 smartphone

  • 5

    Pyongyang threatens eye-for-eye response as US B-1B bombers join drills in South Korea

  • 7

    Police to introduce new measures to better handle intoxicated people

  • 9

    Kim Da-mi, Jeon So-nee team up for coming-of-age film 'Soulmate'

  • 11

    Girl group NewJeans sweeps top 3 spots on Melon's monthly chart for Jan.

  • 13

    Park Hyung-sik to play crown prince in tvN series 'Our Blooming Youth'

  • 15

    Gov't announces measures to cope with shortage of surgeons

  • 17

    INTERVIEWUS-NK summit is unlikely in 2023: Korea Society

  • 19

    INTERVIEWIMF expects no recession for Korean economy

  • 2

    Seoul city council under fire for sexual conduct guidelines for teachers

  • 4

    ENHYPEN-inspired webtoon 'Dark Moon: The Blood Altar' surpasses 100 million views

  • 6

    INTERVIEWA touch of authenticity in Korea's Mexican cuisine scene

  • 8

    Teens feel peer pressure to buy luxury goods endorsed by K-pop stars

  • 10

    Korean iPhone users lose 'batterygate' lawsuit

  • 12

    Woman in mysterious child death case gets suspended prison term in retrial

  • 14

    INTERVIEW'Extended deterrence is best option to ensure peace on Korean Peninsula'

  • 16

    Korea to root out 'jeonse scam,' support victims

  • 18

    Seoul, US hold combined air drills, involving B-1B bomber, F-22, F-35 stealth fighters

  • 20

    Itaewon tragedy's bereaved families harassed by far-right protesters

Close scrollclosebutton

Close for 24 hours

Open
  • The Korea Times
  • search
  • all menu
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • Photos
  • Video
  • World
  • Sports
  • Opinion
  • Entertainment & Art
  • Lifestyle
  • Finance
  • Business
  • National
  • North Korea
Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Columns
  • Thoughts of the Times
  • Cartoon
  • Today in History
  • Blogs
  • Tribune Service
  • Blondie & Garfield
  • Letter to President
  • Letter to the Editor
Sat, February 4, 2023 | 07:58
So, Ready for War With North Korea?
Posted : 2010-04-28 16:02
Updated : 2010-04-28 16:02
Print PreviewPrint Preview
Font Size UpFont Size Up
Font Size DownFont Size Down
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • kakaolink
  • whatsapp
  • reddit
  • mailto
  • link
By Tom Plate

LOS ANGELES ― Sometimes less is more ― a lot more.

It is true that there is not much that South Korean President Lee Myung-bak could reasonably do, one way or the other, in response to the sinking of a South Korean navy patrol vessel in the Yellow Sea.

But what little the president of that country has done, he has done near perfectly. This needs to be noted. A penchant for caution around the Korean Peninsula is no little blessing.

North Korea is a miserable economy of a country but it is nonetheless a military force with which to be reckoned. It is one that includes, everyone assumes, some small speck of nuclear weaponry.

Was the ship named Cheonan attacked by the North Korean navy as it bobbed around the unofficial line on the high sea dividing Northern from Southern coastal waters?

Or did the 1,200-ton, corvette-style, anti-submarine patrol ship stumble on a Korean War era mine? Or perhaps faulty maintenance problems aboard the ship were responsible for the blast and the South Korean Navy may be covering up?

But just the other day, Defense Minister Kim Tae-young declared in favor of the enemy torpedo theory. Whatever the cause, the simple fact of the matter is that on March 26 this South Korean vessel exploded.

At least 40 South Korean sailors are dead ― and the total will rise as more bodies are found. Almost the entire ship has now been dredged up from the ocean deep. A thorough investigation is under way.

And so the pressure on President Lee will grow. But instead of raising the perfervid temperature, he should continue to ask good questions for the military to answer and continue providing additional resources to get at the answers ― and provide for better future detection and defense if it was an attack.

In such a charged atmosphere, with the story on page one of Korean newspapers daily, it is hard to keep perspective. Imagine something comparable to this in waters off Hawaii: faster than you can say Fox News, you'd have flag-waving toward and political posturing over every conceivable military option available. Our own President would be branded as pusillanimous for preferring non-nuclear options.

But President Lee had firmly established a more hawkish position toward the North than his immediate two presidential predecessors. Whatever that policy's deficiencies, on this occasion, it bought him some time to think.

President Lee even swallowed a bit of national pride by publicly asking for investigatory and intelligence help from the United States, which has a military force of about 28,000 stationed in South Korea. This is superior crisis management.

In parallel, the U.S. response, led by Kurt Campbell, the veteran Asian hand who has labored in the Pentagon but now plants his attach? case in the State Department as an assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, has also been exemplary in its cool. This needs to be noted, too.

It also needs to be noted ― for those in America prepared to bomb Pyongyang tomorrow ― that North Korea has not taken credit for the attack. Why not? The North Korean economy remains in such across-the-board shambles that only a gigantic Marshall-Plan type economic excavation can salvage it now.

That won't happen unless some icebreaker is found to push the current Cold War-style chill in a warmer direction. President Lee, the political conservative, is just the man to thaw out the diplomatically frigid peninsula, especially now that the incompetent North Korean regime has seen him operate coolly in crisis mode.

There thus may be a silver lining in the Cheonan cloud. In a timely public briefing by the Korean Studies Institute of the University of Southern California, a major private university here in Los Angeles, a pair of teamed experts argue that even if the North is found definitively culpable, the South has few military options.

And so, conclude USC's Prof. David C. Kang and Leif-Eric Easley, a visiting scholar from Harvard, we need to accept that yet more of the same back-and-forth military and diplomatic counter-punching will get us nowhere.

They write: ``We believe that such a 'status quo' is unsustainable for North Korea ― there are simply too many factors coming to a head in the near future. South Korea and the United States, working closely with Japan and China, need to press hard for a deal with North Korea, before more costly scenarios unfold.''

They are right. No other course takes either side anywhere rational. The time now is as propitious as it will ever be. For if in fact the North did the nasty deed, the cruel incident may yet be but another example of an infantile North Korea throwing its rattle out of its playpen, as if in desperate cry for help. What else makes sense?

Veteran journalist and columnist Tom Plate has interviewed two past South Korean presidents and has written often on tensions over the peninsula. ``Confessions of an American Media Man," originally published in English, has recently been published in a Korean edition. He can be reached at platecolumn@gmail.com.
 
Top 10 Stories
1Teens feel peer pressure to buy luxury goods endorsed by K-pop stars Teens feel peer pressure to buy luxury goods endorsed by K-pop stars
2Itaewon tragedy's bereaved families harassed by far-right protestersItaewon tragedy's bereaved families harassed by far-right protesters
3Plan to construct new memorial center for ex-president faces backlash Plan to construct new memorial center for ex-president faces backlash
4Too many emergency text alerts? Gov't to halt daily COVID-19 notifications Too many emergency text alerts? Gov't to halt daily COVID-19 notifications
5Able C&C sale attracts dozens of potential buyers Able C&C sale attracts dozens of potential buyers
6First lady expands presence in domestic politics First lady expands presence in domestic politics
7FSC OKs Apple Pay to be available in Korea FSC OKs Apple Pay to be available in Korea
8K bank decides to delay IPO plan K bank decides to delay IPO plan
9SEMICON Korea defies chip industry downturn SEMICON Korea defies chip industry downturn
10Gov't to provide $293 billion in trade financing to revitalize exports Gov't to provide $293 billion in trade financing to revitalize exports
Top 5 Entertainment News
1Major webtoon platforms' fight against piracy Major webtoon platforms' fight against piracy
2ENHYPEN-inspired webtoon 'Dark Moon: The Blood Altar' surpasses 100 million views ENHYPEN-inspired webtoon 'Dark Moon: The Blood Altar' surpasses 100 million views
3Kim Da-mi, Jeon So-nee team up for coming-of-age film 'Soulmate' Kim Da-mi, Jeon So-nee team up for coming-of-age film 'Soulmate'
4Park Hyung-sik to play crown prince in tvN series 'Our Blooming Youth' Park Hyung-sik to play crown prince in tvN series 'Our Blooming Youth'
5'Ant-Man 3' promises bigger, better action with same family dynamic: cast 'Ant-Man 3' promises bigger, better action with same family dynamic: cast
DARKROOM
  • Nepal plane crash

    Nepal plane crash

  • Brazil capital uprising

    Brazil capital uprising

  • Happy New Year 2023

    Happy New Year 2023

  • World Cup 2022 Final - Argentina vs France

    World Cup 2022 Final - Argentina vs France

  • World Cup 2022 France vs Morocco

    World Cup 2022 France vs Morocco

CEO & Publisher : Oh Young-jin
Digital News Email : webmaster@koreatimes.co.kr
Tel : 02-724-2114
Online newspaper registration No : 서울,아52844
Date of registration : 2020.02.05
Masthead : The Korea Times
Copyright © koreatimes.co.kr. All rights reserved.
  • About Us
  • Introduction
  • History
  • Contact Us
  • Products & Services
  • Subscribe
  • E-paper
  • RSS Service
  • Content Sales
  • Site Map
  • Policy
  • Code of Ethics
  • Ombudsman
  • Privacy Statement
  • Terms of Service
  • Copyright Policy
  • Family Site
  • Hankook Ilbo
  • Dongwha Group