Text Fwd: S. Korea to stage live-fire drill on border island shelled by N. Korea

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통일 뉴스

합참, 18~21일 연평도 해상사격 실시
"군사정전위 및 유엔사 회원국 대표들이 참관할 것"
2010년 12월 16일 (목) 15:58:08 조정훈 기자
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Korea Times
Military to resume live-fire drills in West Sea
Dec. 16, 2010
By Jung Sung-ki

South Korea plans to issue a navigation ban for the western waters off Yeonpyeong Island later this week for maritime live-fire drills, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) announced Thursday.

The move is expected to further ratchet up cross-border tensions after the North fired its artillery at the island Nov. 23 in response to the South’s firing drill near the border island. The artillery attack killed four South Koreans — two marines and two civilians — sparking outrage in the South.

As a result, Seoul has vowed retaliation, including air strikes, should Pyongyang attack again. The United States has also expressed support for this principle for self-defense.

“We will issue a navigation ban for the coastal area of Yeonpyeong between Dec. 18 and 21 for maritime live-fire drills,” JCS spokesman Col. Lee Bung-woo told reporters. “A detailed date for declaring the ban will be decided after taking weather conditions into account.”

The exercises will be held in the southwestern waters of the island, where South Korea’s marines had held exercises just before the North’s deadly shelling, he said.

“We’ll hold exercises at routine sites and with routine methods within our territory,” said Lee.

Members of the United Nations Command will observe the drills, he added.

The shelling of Yeonpyeong, one of the five islands in the volatile western waters, marked the first time since the 1950-53 Korean War that the North indiscriminately fired on South Korean territory and killed civilians.

The North has never recognized the West Sea border, the Northern Limit Line (NLL), which was drawn up by the U.S.-led United Nations Command at the end of the Korean War.

It remains unclear whether the United States would support air strikes against the North, which could escalate the conflict on the peninsula into a full-scale war.
During peacetime, South Korean commanders are responsible for responding to North Korean provocations, but during a general war scenario, the top U.S. military officer in Seoul would assume control of South Korean troops and overall combat operations.
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Yonhap News
S. Korea to stage live-fire drill on border island shelled by N. Korea
2010/12/16

EXCERPT

Some 20 military personnel from the U.S. forces in South Korea will help South Korean troops in the one-day drill to be held between Saturday and Tuesday by providing medical, communications and intelligence support, officials said.

Members of the Military Armistice Commission of the U.S.-led United Nations Command (UNC), which supervises the armistice agreement that ended the 1950-53 Korean War, will also observe the upcoming drill.

[..]

"It is normally scheduled by request of the United Nations Command for the areas being observed," Taylor said, adding that the UNC has observed the South Korean military's trainings on a regular basis and the "armistice agreement applies to all territory in Korea of land, sea and air."

[..]

To beef up defense on Yeonpyeong, which has a base for the marines, the JCS has deployed surface-to-air missiles, more K-9 self-propelled howitzers and 130-millimeter multiple-launch rocket systems.
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* Text informed from Rick Rozoff on Dec. 16, 2010
Top Military Commander: U.S., South Korea To Continue War Games
Stars and Stripes
December 15, 2010
By Ashley Rowland

SEOUL — The U.S. and South Korea will meet future North Korean attacks with the “utmost response” available that “the laws of land warfare permit,” the top U.S. military officer in the country said Wednesday night.

In some of his first public remarks since North Korea’s bombardment of Yeonpyeong Island on last month, U.S. Forces Korea commander Gen. Walter Sharp said the allies will plan more exercises to prepare for both limited assaults and full-scale attacks from the North.

“Though involving less loss of life than the attack on the Cheonan, the North’s attack on the northwest island (of Yeonpyeong) crossed significant thresholds and represented a worrying trend towards more frequent and more violent provocations,” Sharp said at a dinner for the East Asia Institute at the Shilla Hotel.

The Nov. 23 artillery assault killed four people and marked the North’s first attack on civilians since the Korean War. It was the second attack against the South this year: A North Korean torpedo sank the warship Cheonan in March, killing 46 sailors.

Sharp said the U.S. and South Korea must “find ways to change North Korea’s strategic calculus and end the cycle of provocation.”

“It’s difficult to determine exactly why North Korea engages in attacks and provocations,” he said. “but it’s likely a complex mix of motives and objectives are operating, including an effort to buttress regime legitimacy and a cohesion among the elites as well as shore up succession while addressing policy goals.”

Since the attack on Yeonpyeong, top U.S. officials have called for China to increase its pressure on North Korea to curtail its provocations and end its nuclear program. North Korea revealed a new uranium enrichment facility last month.

Sharp did not directly address the safety of the 28,500 U.S. troops stationed on the peninsula, but touted the benefits of a slowly expanding tour normalization program that allows more servicemembers to bring their families to South Korea. U.S. troops have typically served one-year unaccompanied tours in South Korea, but approximately half of the troops will eventually be stationed there with their families on two- and three-year tours.

“There is no reason that families should not be here in Korea,” said Sharp, adding that North Korea’s attacks had strengthened rather than weakened the decades-old U.S.-South Korea military alliance.

Earlier in the day, U.S. ambassador to South Korea Kathleen Stephens told the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea that “the United States stands firmly with the Republic of Korea,” and said the two countries had been working closely through military and diplomatic channels to develop plans to respond firmly to North Korean attacks.

In response to criticism from an audience member that the U.S. bears responsibility for the division of the peninsula, Stephens said it was her “deepest desire” to see the peaceful, democratic reunification of the two Koreas.

“It is a tragedy, I agree with you, that here in the 20th century we still have unfinished business, and that unfinished business is to achieve a Korean peninsula that is whole, free and at peace,” she said.
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[국문] [PSPD Press Release] The NNSC criticizes the UNC's Cheonan ship investigation [참여 연대 보도자료] 군사정전위원회 중립국감독위원회 대표들, 유엔사의 천안함 조사 결과 관련 비판 제기

참여 연대 평화 군축 센터, 2010 년 10월 13일
Peace Disarmament Center, People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (PSPD), Oct. 13, 2010

[보도 자료] 군사정전위원회 중립국감독위원회 대표들
천안함 조사결과에 대한 합조단과 유엔사의
비밀 정보 접근 제한을 비판

[Press Release] The representatives of the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission (NNSC) criticize the Joint Investigation Committee's investigation result and UN Command’s limitation of access to the secrete information, regarding the Cheonan ship incident.

지난 7월 23일 한반도에 주둔하는 유엔군사령부 군사정전위원회를 대표하여 미국의 수잔 E. 라이스(Susan E. Rice) 유엔 대표부 대사가 유엔 안보리에 제출한 천안함 침몰 조사보고서에는 천안함이 북한의 소형 잠수정이 발사한 어뢰에 의해 침몰했고 이 행위가 정전협정 위반 행위에 해당한다고 결론을 내렸다. 이 보고서가 유엔에 제출된 사실에 대해서는 이번 한미연례안보협의회의에서 양국 국방장관이 언급한 바 있다.

이 보고서는 한국 정부가 유엔 안보리에 제출한 민군합동조사단 보고서와 별도로, 북한의 정전협정 위반 여부를 판단하기 위하여 유엔사 차원에서 행한 특별조사활동을 정리한 보고서이다. 유엔사의 조사활동은 5월 20일 민군합동조사단 결과 발표 직후 1주일간 진행되었다.

그런데 이 보고서에 첨부된 중립국감독위원회의 참관 보고서는 매우 주목할 만한 문제 제기를 포함하고 있다. 유엔사의 조사 활동을 참관한 중립국감독위원회 대표들은 보고서에서 “중립국감독위원회 참관인들이 정보 브리핑에 참여하는 것이 허락되지 않았다. 스웨덴 대표는 세탁된 버전(a scrubbed version)의 정보 브리핑을 제공받았다. 폴란드와 스위스 대표들도 취사선택된 정보에 한 해 별도의 브리핑을 받았다”고 지적하고 있다.

또한 중립국감독위원회의 보고서는 또 “충분한 수준의 투명성에 도달하기 위해서는 중립국감독위원회가 한반도에 파병한 국가들(교전국)과 같은 수준으로 비밀정보에 접근하도록 제도가 갖추어져야 한다”고 비판적으로 권고하고 있다.

중립국감독위원회의 보고서는 결론에서 “중립국감독위원회가 접근할 수 있었던 자료에 기초할 때”라는 단서를 달아, “천안함 침몰과 관련된 정전협정 위반이 있었다고 결론 내린다”며 “유엔사 특별조사팀의 권고를 지지한다”고 정리하고 있다. 주목할 것은 1)유엔사 특별조사팀이 북한소행이라고 결론내린 반면, 중립국감독위원회는 정전협정위반이 있었다고만 결론내리고 있다는 점, 2)중립국들이 지지한다는 유엔사의 권고에는 북한에 대한 규탄내용은 없고, 다만 북한과 중국이 군사정전위에 복귀하고 참관팀을 파견해야 한다는 권고만 있다는 점이다. 또한 중립국들은 “비밀자료에 대한 접근권 관련 개선이 필요하다”는 내용도 재차 보고서 결론에 포함시켰다.

참고로 이와는 별도로, 지난 5월 합조단 조사 활동에 참여했던 스웨덴 전문가들 역시 자신이 참여한 부분에 한해서만 동의한다는 단서를 달아 9월 13일 발표된 합조단의 최종보고서에 사인한 바 있다. 북한군이 천안함을 침몰시켰다는 보고서의 결론에 동의하지 않은 것이다.

▣ 별첨자료. 유엔군사령부가 유엔 안보리에 제출한 천안함 침몰 조사보고서
Letter dated 23 July 2010 from the Permanent Representative of the United States of America to the United Nations addressed to the President of the Security Council (S/2010/398)

[Cheonan ship]UN Command Report to_UN Security Council.pdf

보도자료원문.hwp

Text Fwd: N.Korea’s reinvestigation proposal alters Cheonan situation

The wreckage of propeller presented as evidence by the joint military-civilian investigation team and the blueprint showing the actual size of the torpedo are displayed at South Korean Ministry of National Defense, May 20.


Hankyoreh
N.Korea’s reinvestigation proposal alters Cheonan situation
Analysts say the proposal is a double-edged sword for the S.Korean government
Posted on : May.21, 2010 12:06 KST


In its response to the South Korean government’s announcement Thursday of its finding that the Cheonan sank due to a torpedo attack by a North Korean submersible, North Korea played a card no one saw coming. The country offered a formal counterproposal by its highest organization of authority, the National Defense Commission, to “send a Democratic People’s Republic of Korea National Defense Commission review team to the site in South Choson to verify the evidence.”

Directly, this is an expression of North Korea’s intention to send a fact-finding team to prove that it had nothing to do with the sinking of the Cheonan. But in reality, there is a far deeper and broader strategy at play in the context of inter-Korean relations and the geopolitics of the Korean Peninsula.

“It is unprecedented in the history of inter-Korean relations for North Korea to propose sending an investigation team in response to an issue that has been deemed a ‘military provocation by North Korea,’” said Kim Yeon-chul, professor of unification studies at Inje University. “The Cheonan situation has entered a new phase.”

“Regardless of whether the government accepts or rejects North Korea’s proposal, the situation will inevitably unfold in a different manner from what the government had initially planned for the days ahead,” said a former senior figure who worked at the Unification Ministry and the Cheong Wa Dae (the presidential office in South Korea or Blue House).

If the South Korean government does accept North Korea’s proposal, it may signal the beginning of an effective “reinvestigation” of the cause of the Cheonan’s sinking. The government’s announcement Thursday of investigation findings would be downgraded in status to “reference material.” If the government does not accept the proposal, there is a considerable chance that it will find itself in a difficult position in future discussions with the international community, including the UN Security Council. This is due to the possibility of divisions appearing in international opinion as North Korea steps up its counteroffensive by arguing that the South Korean announcement was fabricated, and China and Russia support the North Korean proposal. In this sense, North Korea’s counterproposal to send its own review team is a double-edged sword for the South Korean government.

“The government has found itself in a confining situation,” said Former Unification Minister Jeong Se-hyun

Also noteworthy is the fact that in addition to North Korea’s formal announcement of an “NDC spokesperson’s statement,” the country also made an informal proposal through an inter-Korean authorities’ channel to send the review team on Friday and Saturday. This indicates the possibility that the proposal may not simply be a political offensive.

“North Korea’s proposal is positive in that it is an attitude of ‘finding the truth based on the facts’ rather than a military response,” said Jang Yong-seok, research director at the Institute for Peace Affairs. “If the government rejects North Korea’s proposal, it could face an irremediable crisis of trust within and outside the country.”

“The government must accept North Korea’s proposal,” said Jang.

“There also appears to be an intention on North Korea’s part of using this review team proposal as part of an attempt at new dialogue between North Korean and South Korean authorities,” said a former high-ranking official. The official added, “It suggests that so long as South Korea does not enact provocative measures, North Korea does not want tensions to heighten due to the Cheonan issue.”

Perhaps because of this complex array of factors, the government has shown a cautious approach to the proposal from North Korea.

“The investigation will begin at the UN Command Military Armistice Commission according to the armistice agreement, and we only need to follow that procedure,” said Park Jung-yi, military head of the joint civilian-military fact-finding team.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]