“South Korean military are preparing new rules of engagement for troops as Seoul threatens tough response to any attack.  The American and Korean troops at the military camp are just 400 yards from the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) that has divided North from South Korea since the 1953 armistice. It has always been a tense place, ringed by razor wire and minefields, but now there is a particular urgency to the military spadework.  North Korea has carried out two major military attacks on the South in the past 15 months, and is widely believed in Seoul to be planning a third, in an attempt to extract diplomatic and economic concessions.  What makes the current situation so fraught with danger – some say the most perilous moment on the Korean peninsula for a generation – is South Korea’s hardline stance.  The government of President Lee Myung-bak, facing elections next year and criticism for its cautious response to the previous two incidents, is threatening to unleash a far more punishing response to any further “provocation”, setting the scene for an unpredictable tit-for-tat escalation.  South Korean islands along the western maritime border, the scene of the two earlier incidents, are bristling with new weapons. Government officials in Seoul confirmed that those new defences will include Israeli-made Delilah missiles, with a range of 150 miles – enough to hit Pyongyang.  The South Korean military is meanwhile preparing new rules of engagement for its frontline troops which would allow it to respond “robustly” to an attack without immediately consulting the government in Seoul. Security officials talk of ‘proactive deterrence’, saying any future response would no longer be proportionate, but rather punitive enough to dissuade the Kim Jong-il regime in Pyongyang from making further attacks.  A South Korean counterattack would target not just the North Korean units involved in any future military action but command posts as far away as the North Korean capital.  Officials in Seoul even talk of a future incident as ‘an opportunity’ that would allow them to ‘restore’ a working level of deterrence. But it is a high-risk strategy”

Link to full article

Related posts:

1. What now for the hermit DPRK?

Comments are closed.