By Kim Young-jin
China criticized South Korea Thursday in an editorial for holding large-scale firing drills later in the day as a deterrent against further North Korean provocation in the wake of Pyongyang’s recent shelling of a southern island.
“The North's firing back in November that left four South Koreans dead was an overreaction but the South's continuous bombast is putting it at a disadvantage that will draw international criticism,” an editorial in the Bejing-based Global Times, a paper published by the Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily, said.
The drills were the Lee administration’s latest show of force in the West Sea since the Nov. 23 shelling of Yeonpyeong Island. Pyongyang says it waged the broad daylight attack in response to the South’s military drills in the area, while Seoul maintains the exercises were routine.
On Monday, Seoul pressed on with live-fire artillery drills from the island despite threats from Pyongyang that it would wage a deadly response. The North did not immediately retaliate.
The editorial said South Korean leaders appeared “trapped in their triumph” after Monday’s drills.
“Many believe that if they try to be nice, Pyongyang will never stop; and if they play tough, the other side will back off. But the two Koreas are not street hoodlums, nor bullies in the schoolyard,” it said.
Noting that war on the peninsula could have devastating economic effects, it added “it is unacceptable for regional interests that any side threatens the other with war, whatever the purpose may be.”
Beijing has voiced similar objections to joint war drills by the Washington and Seoul in waters near the maritime border in response to the shelling and Pyongyang’s apparent torpedoing of the South Korean warship Cheonan, which took 46 lives.
The article also criticized Seoul’s decision to light up a giant Christmas tree on a border hill visible from the North, which the North Korean regime sees as psychological warfare.
A separate editorial published by the paper, Wednesday, applauded Pyongyang for its “restraint” in not retaliating to the live-fire drills.
“North Korea's reaction to the South's military drill Monday let the world see its calmness and restraint. The North's international image is being quietly altered, whereas the South is labeled by some observers as threatening the status quo,” it said.