hankyoreh

Tensions have mounted in Northeast Asia over plans for joint military exercises in the West Sea by South Korea and the United States. The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has decided to hold its own live round training in the East China Sea in a sort of “fight fire with fire” strategy, and announced a few days ago that it was opposed to the joint training exercise in the West Sea. The exercises, pursued by the Lee Myung-bak administration as a measure in response to the sinking of the Cheonan, have now begun to breed unnecessary friction and conflict.

This type of situation was in the cards from the time the Lee administration began to hastily push countermeasures for the Cheonan incident. The Lee administration initially announced plans for large-scale joint training, even including the participation of a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier battle group, with the goal of sending a clear message to North Korea. This, however, showed a lack of any deep consideration of the position and opinions of surrounding nations, and was the product of a low-level mindset willing to use any means necessary when it comes to pressuring North Korea. We have already viewed the results of this. China objected strenuously, saying that joint military exercises including aircraft carriers would threaten its strategic boundaries. These objections put South Korea and the U.S. in the awkward position of twice delaying their exercises. Gone is the early bravado and boasting about bringing North Korea into submission with a show of force. Instead, the countries have only generated international friction and burdens.

The Lee administration must not forget that the largest share of the burden from greater tensions in Northeast Asia always falls on South Korea. Other associated nations like the United States, Japan, and China have the margin to pursue their own strategic interests even amid an antagonistic framework. South Korea’s position, however, is different in that it feels the effects of this directly. In particular, a reproduction of the Cold War framework, with South Korea, the United States, and Japan on one side and North Korea, China, and Russia on the other, is highly undesirable from South Korea’s standpoint, since it will become even more difficult to make its voice heard as a leader, instead finding itself dragged around by the United States despite being a direct party to Northeast Asian issues. For South Korea, regional military tensions heightening on top of deteriorating inter-Korean relations is a worst-case scenario that must be avoided.

The recent situation smacks strongly of the administration reaping what it sowed from waging unilateral diplomatic warfare in which it depended solely on the United States and ignored China and Russia. A case in point is the fact that prospects of sanctions on North Korea being discussed at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) are growing dimmer by the day. It is truly frustrating to see this insistence on a misguided foreign policy strategy with no exit or withdrawal route in sight. We hope the Lee administration reflects deeply upon the root cause of the tensions stirred up over the joint exercises in the West Sea, and immediately works to find a way to set the path right.

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