By Jung Sung-ki
The United States is supportive of South Korea invoking the right of self-defense that allows its military to launch precision-guided air strikes on North Korean targets, should the latter attack South Korean territory and people again, a top U.S. commander said Wednesday.
South Korea and the United States will draw up a new operational plan to respond to North Korea’s low-intensity provocation near land and sea borders in the aftermath of a series of deadly attacks on South Koreans in recent months, Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
Mullen made the remarks during a joint press conference with his South Korean counterpart Gen. Han Min-koo after their high-profile meeting in Seoul.
“South Korea is a sovereign nation that has every right to protect its people and to respond as it sees fit in order to effectively carry out that responsibility,” Mullen said. “It also has the right to choose the method with which it responds. Certainly there are a variety of options that South Korea has, that the United States has inside the alliance to respond to further provocations.”
The admiral said he didn’t ask the South to refrain from launching air strikes on targets in the North.
There has been a debate in recent weeks on whether or not the South is allowed to conduct air-to-ground precision attacks against the North without consent from the United States if the communist neighbor launches an attack on South Korean people and soil.
The two Koreas remain technically at war since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a ceasefire treaty, which is supervised by the U.S.-led United Nations Command (UNC).
The UNC commander, who concurrently serves as head of USFK and Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command (CFC), has operational control of South Korean forces during wartime.
To prevent the two Koreas from engaging in a full-scale war, the UNC-controlled rules of engagement calls for using a similar level of force to that of the enemy.
Gen. Han said North Korea’s provocations have posed more serious threats to South Koreans than ever, so that the allies are preparing to draw up a new joint operational plan concerned.
“We feel the need of jointly responding to the North’s provocations with the United States. To that end, we plan to develop a new operational plan led by South Korea and supported by the U.S.,” Han said. “We’ll come up with the plan as soon as possible.”
The Han-Mullen meeting comes as tension spikes on the Korean Peninsula following the North’s deadly shelling of Yeonpyeong Island, one of the five South Korean islands in the West Sea, last month. The artillery attack killed four South Koreans — two marines and two civilians. In March, 46 South Korean sailors lost their lives after their frigate was allegedly torpedoed by a North Korean midget submarine.
“Both the ROK and U.S. chairmen acknowledged that the artillery fire on Yeonpyeong Island was a deliberate and illegal armed attack which violates the U.N. Charter and Armistice Agreement with the excuse that they responded to the peacefully executed ROK forces’ routine firing exercises south of the Northern Limit Line (NLL),” the chairmen said in a joint statement. “Moreover, both sides agreed that North Korea’s inhumane action of killing innocent civilians deserves condemnation.”
“Also, both sides agreed to strengthen joint efforts to deter further provocation and war. They agreed to primarily refine the ROK-supported, U.S.-supporting plans against local provocation in order to resolutely respond to further North Korean aggression,” said the statement.
Other participants at Wednesday’s high-level meeting included U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) commander, Gen. Walter Sharp; Lt. Gen. Jeong Hong-yong, director of South Korean JCS’ strategy and planning bureau; Lt. Gen. Charles Jacoby, Jr., director of the strategy and planning section of the U.S. JCS; and U.S. Ambassador to Seoul Kathleen Stephens.