Text Fwd: Allies to stage joint anti-sub drill in West Sea

Korea Times
05-24-2010 18:17
Allies to stage joint anti-sub drill in West Sea

By Jung Sung-ki
Staff reporter

The government will prohibit all North Korean vessels from entering South Korea's territorial waters, including the straits between the southern island of Jeju and the mainland.

South Korea will also ban any further investment in North Korea and suspend aid programs for the impoverished except children. These are part of the government's measures announced Monday in retaliation for North Korea sinking the South Korean Navy ship Cheonan with a torpedo on March 26.

In a joint news conference at the Government Complex in Seoul, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Yu Myung-hwan, Minister of National Defense Kim Tae-young and Minister of Unification Hyun In-taek presented a range of measures to impose additional national sanctions against the communist state, strengthen the country's defense posture against it and to reduce inter-Korean exchanges.

Hyun, the point man on North Korea, declared that Seoul's patience had run out.

"The government expected that North Korea would agree to forge a new and improved relationship between the two Koreas, which is the desire of our people," he said.

Except for the operation of the joint Gaeseong Industrial Complex, Hyun said, the government will ban general trade between the two Koreas, as well as the inbound and outbound shipments of goods and materials for processing on commission.

But the inter-Korean economic zone could be downscaled or closed if North Korea threatens the safety of South Korean people there, Minister Hyun said.

South Korean citizens will not be allowed to visit North Korea, with the exception of trips to the Gaeseong site and the Mt. Geumgang resort.

But the government will continue providing humanitarian aid through existing programs for infants and young children.

Defense Minister Kim said the Armed Forces are maintaining robust military readiness through the integrated operation of ROK-U.S. combined intelligence assets and the strengthening of 24-hour surveillance activities.

Key military steps include resuming psychological operations against North Korea, such as loud broadcasts of propaganda near the inter-Korean border, interdicting North Korean ships in South Korean waters, and staging a joint ROK-U.S. anti-submarine exercise in the West Sea.

The two Koreas agreed to halt official cross-border propaganda in 2004, but South Korean activists have infuriated Pyongyang by floating balloons, with anti-North Korean regime messages attached, northward over the border fences.

Kim said the Navy is preparing to fully participate in the U.S.-led ship interdicting Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) in an attempt to stem the proliferation of North Korean weapons of mass destruction. He said South Korea is seeking to host the PSI exercise in waters around the peninsula in the latter half of this year.
gallantjung@koreatimes.co.kr

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Korea Times
05-24-2010 17:27
Seoul halts trade, shuts sea lanes to NK