hankyoreh

The South Korean government has urged the incoming administration of Presdient-elect Lee Myung-bak to consider joining the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative. Seoul’s refusal to participate in the PSI has caused trouble with Washington in the past, a conflict which intensified during the North Korean nuclear crisis. The issue is expected to stir controversy again, as the North has threatened that a war will sweep the Korean Peninsula if the South joins the PSI. Seoul’s National Defense Ministry also objects to joining the initiative.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade stated that it was necessary for South Korea to consider joining the PSI as an official participant during a briefing to the presidential transition team on January 4, which was confirmed by various sources on January 11. The ministry emphasized that Korea should consider participating in the PSI, saying that 86 nations, including major advanced countries, are already officially participating in the PSI.
Shortly after North Korea conducted a nuclear test in October 2006, South Korea refused to join the PSI, which is aimed at interdicting the transmission of weapons of mass destruction and materials that could be used to make them, out of concern that doing so will have a negative effect on inter-Korean relations, despite repeated requests from the United States to join. If the incoming administration of Lee Myung-bak decides to participate in the initiative in an official capacity, as well as fulfill another U.S. request to join the Missile Defense system, the move is sure to be controversial.

An official of the transition team said, “In order to strengthen the ROK-U.S. alliance and cooperation with the international community, the Foreign Ministry has raised the need to consider South Korea’s participating in the PSI.”

The Defense Ministry, however, is opposed to the idea. The ministry reportedly expressed its negative view on the matter during a briefing to the transition team on January 8. During a press conference held on January 3, Defense Minister Kim Jang-soo said, “According to the agreement reached by the two Koreas, the South can search North Korean ships traveling in South Korea’s territorial waters. Therefore, we don’t have to join the PSI.”

The U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative, launched in May 2003, is aimed at physically preventing countries perceived to be rogue nations, such as North Korea and Iran, from producing WMDs or exporting them to a third party. Under international maritime laws, searches of ships in international waters can only be done on pirate ships, ships transporting slaves and ships that are stateless. As a consequence, there continue to be controversies over the validity of the PSI.

South Korea has cooperated with the PSI in five areas out of eight as an observer since January 2006. These include training to intercept WMDs, conducted as part of joint ROK-U.S. military training exercises, and the observation of interdiction training exercises carried out by other countries. However, the nation has thus far refused to join the PSI as a participant country. Doing so would involve full participation in training exercises and the extension of physical assistance during training exercises in other countries.

The defense minister’s comments, in which he stated it was not necessary to join the PSI, refer to a deal struck between the two Koreas which is similar in nature to the PSI, but is only valid in their respective maritime territories.

North Korea in March 2003 asserted that applying the PSI to the Korean Peninsula violates the armistice agreement that brought the Korean War to an end and which forbids hostilities initiated by the Army, the Navy and the Air Force. North Korea’s Democratic Front for the Unification of the Fatherland issued a statement in February 2006, which said that South Korea’s joining the PSI could bring “fire clouds” of war to the Korean Peninsula.

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