Defense chief to deliver speech for fallen sailors
Yeonpyeong Naval Battle anniversary slated for today
By Yi Whan-woo
Han Min-koo Defense Minister
Defense Minister Han Min-koo will attend a ceremony on Monday to mark the 13th anniversary of the second Yeongpyeong Naval Battle, the government said Sunday.
The Ministry of Defense said Han will deliver a message in honor of the fallen South Korean sailors during a ceremony at the Navy’s 2nd Fleet headquarters in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province.
This is the first time Seoul’s defense chief will offer such message since the naval clash between the two Koreas on June 29, 2002, according to the ministry. Six South Korean Navy sailors died and 18 were injured in a clash in the waters off the South Korean border island of Yeonpyeong in the West Sea.
“The Navy organizes the ceremony and the defense minister does not necessarily need to deliver a tributary speech,” ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said. “However, after thinking the issues over, he decided to honor the war dead in his own words.”
Kim added Han will visit the graves of the six sailors at Daejeon National Cemetery later in the day. They include the late Lt. Cmdr. Yoon Young-ha who was the commander of the Chamsuri 357, a fast patrol boat that sank while exchanging fire with North Korean vessels boat during the bloody skirmish.
The defense ministry’s announcement came amid growing public attention toward the tragedy in the wake of the release of a film that depicts the incident.
The movie, titled “North Limit Line,” has attracted over 1 million people since it opened in theaters nationwide on June 24. Han also watched it on its opening day.
It depicts the exchange of fire between the two Koreas near the Northern Limit Line (NLL), the de facto maritime border. Two North Korean patrol ships did not comply with a South Korean vessel’s warnings to retreat after crossing the NLL and instead opened fire first while being chased by four Korean patrol boats, including the Chamsuri 357.
The incident, which also saw 13 North Koreans killed and 25 wounded, was often seen as a “forgotten tragedy” because it happened just before the 2002 World Cup, which put South Korea in a festive mood as co-host of the event with Japan.
The football craze swept South Korea on June 29, 2002 as well when the country played against Turkey in the third-place match.
The late former President Kim Dae-jung, who was in the office, did not attend the funeral ceremony for of the dead sailors, a move seen as an attempt to maintain inter-Korean ties in accordance with his “Sunshine policy.”
The liberals governments of Kim and his successor, the late Roh Moo-hyun, also were criticized for “not fully respecting” the victims and their surviving family members at a governmental level.
The Navy organized ceremonies to mark the second Yeongpyeong Naval Battle under the two “progressive presidents” until 2007.
The conservative Lee Myung-bak government then ran ceremonies under the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs from 2008 to 2012.
The Navy has hosted the ceremonies again under the President Park Geun-hye administration from 2013.
The law on patriots and veterans state the country commemorates their patriotic acts at a governmental level for five years.
Pyongyang has argued that the NLL was drawn unilaterally by the U.S.-led United Nations Command when the 1950-53 Korean War ended and it therefore should be redrawn further south.
The military regime has violated the NLL repeatedly, including June 15, 1999 when the first Yeongpyeong Naval Battle took place.
For South Korea, the battle left a patrol ship and four fast speedboats damaged and nine sailors slightly injured. For North Korea, however, it resulted in sinking of at least North Korean torpedo boat and killing of up to 30 soldiers.