Can South Korea exercise self-defense rights to retaliate North Korea ― now that an international inquiry concluded that the fatal March 26 naval incident was a North Korean submarine attack?
A newspaper claims yes.
The local Maeil Business Newspaper on Saturday said the United Nations Charter Article 51 specifies a country's right to exercise armed retaliation as a self-defense measure.
"There is a view that a country should first seek peaceful means to resolve a conflict through the Security Council of the U.N. before it exercises (its own) self-defense rights," it said.
But "at the end of the day, the U.N. Charter Article 51 doesn't ban a country's right to self-defense. It thus warrants South Korea to carry out self-defense acts on its own or together with its allies," it said.
"Afterwards, it can report it to the U.N. Until the U.N. dispenses measures, it can continue to carry out attacks," it said.
It, however, also mentioned about the problem of such legal interpretation when the enemy's attack was done only once and no further attack was carried out.
"In this case, South Korea needs to develop a logical argument that supports the view that 'the North Korean attack was not meant to be a one-time event,'" the newspaper said, adding a series of naval provocations by the North could back the South's argument.