N. Korea Resorting to Brinkmanship Again
By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
North Korea is continuing its campaign of threats against South Korea in an apparent attempt to get gains by ratcheting up the tension on the Korean Peninsula.
In its latest move, the North said it would shoot down South Korean commercial airliners flying near its territory during the Key Resolve/Foal Eagle training exercises by South Korean and U.S. troops, to be held from March 9 to 20.
It said it would not guarantee the safety of passenger planes using its airspace over the East Sea unless the annual drills were cancelled.
South Korea's military authorities have begun to analyze any potential provocation by North Korea in a more careful manner, an official of Seoul's Ministry of National Defense said, asking not to be named.
Many North Korea observers say the North's recent provocative moves are mainly aimed at drawing the attention of the new U.S. administration of President Barack Obama amid the stalled six-way talks over its nuclear weapons program so that it can engage in direct talks with Washington.
Additionally, they say, the North Koreans want to alienate South Korea in talks over North Korean affairs as part of efforts to stymie the Lee Myung-bak administration's tougher approach toward the regime, which predicates denuclearization to assistance programs.
North Korea's two rounds of high-level military contacts with the U.S.-led United Nations Command (UNC) have proven the North's intention to isolate the South in security issues on the peninsula, they added.
During Friday's military talks at the truce village of Panmunjeom in the Demilitarized Zone, North Korea reiterated its demand that South Korea and the U.S. stop the planned Key Resolve/Foal Eagle exercises next week, according to the UNC.
The UNC delegation filed a complaint against the North's latest threat to take down South Korean civilian planes, urging North Korea to refrain from taking any provocative actions that would further increase tension, the UNC said in a news release.
The UNC reassured North Korean representatives regarding their concerns about the Key Resolve/Foal Eagle exercises and noted that these exercises are purely defensive in nature and have no connection to ongoing or current events,'' it said.
``The UNC stated that the (North Korean) statement was entirely inappropriate, had raised great concern in the international aviation community, and should be retracted immediately,'' it said. ``The UNC also offered initial confidence-building measures which could be pursued action for action as discussions progress.''
Representing the UNC at the meeting were Maj. Gen. Johnny Weida of the U.S. Air Force; Brig. Gen. Lee Chang-heon of the South Korean Air Force; Brig. Gen. Matthew O'Hanlon from the United Kingdom; and Col. Harold Cockburn, the rotating member from New Zealand. The UNC proposed further talks to the KPA, according to the release.
South and North Korea remain technically at war since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a ceasefire agreement, not a peace treaty. The UNC supervises the truce on the peninsula and the UNC chief concurrently serves as head of the 28,000-strong U.S. Forces Korea and the Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command.
In earlier statements, the North said it would nullify all inter-Korean political and military agreements, including one on the Northern Limit Line (NLL) in the West Sea, while vowing to launch a ``satellite,'' which outsiders believe is actually a long-range missile capable of hitting the United States with a light payload.