Park tells NK to change or face isolation
Navy sailors salute during a memorial service commemorating the third anniversary of the sinking of the frigate Cheonan in front of the wreckage of the warship at the Second Fleet Command in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, Tuesday. A total of 46 sailors were killed in a stealthy North Korean torpedo attack. / Yonhap
By Kim Tae-gyu
President Park Geun-hye
President Park Geun-hye said Tuesday that North Korea must abandon its nuclear ambitions if it wants to continue to survive as a nation.
Park made the remarks during a memorial service at the National Cemetery in Daejeon for 46 sailors who were killed when the Republic of Korea Navy frigate Cheonan was torpedoed by the North and sunk in the West Sea on March 26, 2010.
“In time with the third anniversary of the Cheonan tragedy, I demand that North Korea change. The North needs to scrap the belief that nuclear arms can protect its regime,” Park said in her address.
“Focusing its resources on developing nuclear weapons without regard to its starving people will end up causing further isolation from the global community. Giving up nuclear arms, missiles, provocations and threats, to become a responsible member of the world is the only way to guarantee its survival.”
Park’s remarks are by and large in line with her administration’s North Korea policy, the “Korean Peninsula Trust Process,” a carrot-and-stick approach geared toward bringing Pyongyang back to the negotiating table from its self-imposed isolation.
The President did not mention any provision of humanitarian aid for the impoverished state, or any punishment to be taken against aggression from the North. Instead, she implored Pyongyang to take positive steps.
“After stopping provocations that will only continue a vicious cycle of conflict and sacrifice of our young people, the North has to opt for peace on the Korean Peninsula,” Park said.
She visited all the graves of the 46 Cheonan victims and that of a warrant officer, Han Joo-ho, who died during a rescue attempt. President Park promised not to forget the hardship endured by the bereaved families.
Similar memorial events took place across the country and representatives from both the ruling and opposition parties paid their respects to Han and the sailors who died on the Cheonan.
Three years ago, the naval vessel broke in two and sank off the country’s west coast. Of 104 sailors aboard, 46 were killed as a result of the unprovoked attack.
As the 1,200-ton corvette sank near the disputed maritime border with Pyongyang, Seoul suspected that the Stalinist state was responsible.
An international investigation team headed by South Korea concluded that a North Korean torpedo attack caused the warship to sink, but Pyongyang denied this.
It was one of the worst disasters to have hit the Navy and prompted Seoul to look for ways to strengthen cooperation with Washington in order to better deal with “limited” attacks from North Korea.
The shelling of an island on the maritime border, Yeonpyeong, later that year, which claimed four lives including two civilians, accelerated this process.
After more than two years of negotiations, the two allies last week signed a Combined Counter-Provocation Plan.
Seoul and Washington have long maintained a detailed plan for all-out war against the belligerent regime but they lacked one for limited conflicts such as the attacks on the Cheonan and Yeonpyeong.
Under the new agreement, the United States Forces Korea will engage with North Korea even over a limited-scale provocation in the event that South Korea requests military support.
Concern has emerged about the likelihood of further inter-Korean conflicts, particularly ones around the Northern Limit Line and the Demilitarized Zone, because the North has ratcheted up its warlike rhetoric of late due to sanctions imposed by the United Nations.
The U.N. Security Council issued these in response to Pyongyang’s Feb. 12 nuclear test, its third since 2006, with which it went ahead despite international warnings and condemnation.