hankyoreh

Apr. 1. (Blue House photo pool) 　

By Seok Jin-hwan and Kim Kyu-won, staff reporters

On Apr. 1, South Korean president Park Geun-hye said, “If a provocative action is taken against the Korean people and the Republic of Korea, [the ROK military] will make a firm response from the beginning without any other political considerations whatsoever.” The remark was made at a joint work briefing by the Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs, held at the Ministry of National Defense building in the Yongsan district of Seoul. Park continued to say, “At present, I consider North Korea’s threats to be very serious.”

The remarks are the toughest that Park has yet made regarding North Korean threats and provocations. Until now, when Park had talked about a firm response to North Korean provocations, she had always stressed moving forward with the trust process on the Korean peninsula, predicated on a change in North Korea’s attitude.

This day was different. Park directly mentioned that the North had entered into a state of war and laid down a unusually specific command to the ROK army to respond firmly at the beginning of the engagement.

“Following the sinking of the Cheonan, the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island, and the nuclear test, North Korea has recently nullified the ceasefire agreement, severed lines of communication with the South, and at last declared that the peninsula has entered a state of war,” Park also said. “As the commander in chief, I will trust the judgment of our military, which is directly positioned to counter North Korea, in regard to the North’s unexpected and surprise provocations.”

Park’s comments about responding strongly early in the engagement and trusting the judgment of the military also reinforce the “shoot first, make a report later” principle that Kim Kwan-jin, Minister of Defense, has long espoused. If there is a provocation by the North, the South Korean military will first take measures to retaliate against the source of the provocation, as well as the support and command forces behind it, and then report those measures up the line of command.

In contrast to all of these hard-line remarks, made by Park early in the briefing, in her concluding remarks she said, “Our objective is to create a sustainable peace on the Korean peninsula on the basis of deterrence and a resolute national security stance and to lay the foundation for peaceful reunification.” This statement can be read to suggest that Park intends to maintain the basis of her North Korea policy in its current state.

The Blue House also warned against reading too much into Park’s remarks, insisting that the framework for North Korea policy has not changed.

“Taking note of the current national security situation, Park had decided early on to hear the Ministry of Defense briefing in person,” said a Blue House official. “Given that this was a briefing by the Ministry of Defense, all she did was give the military standard orders in line with established principle.”

Among people close to the Blue House, there are some who see the remarks as having been intended to soothe conservatives. Some conservatives have expressed dissatisfaction with Park’s perceived inability to take a firm stance in regard to the recent security situation.

At the same time, the US military extended its show of force aimed at North Korea. On Mar. 31, two F-22 stealth fighters were dispatched to South Korea from a base in Japan to take part in the Foal Eagle joint US-ROK military exercises. After completing air-to-air and air-to-ground training, they are supposed to return to their base, the US military command announced.

The F-22s, which are considered the world‘s strongest jet fighters, are the fourth strategic, high-tech US weapon that has been dispatched to South Korea during the ongoing US-ROK combined military exercises. Previously, the US had made shows of force including bringing in B-52 strategic bombers on Mar. 19, a nuclear submarine on Mar. 20, and B-2 stealth bombers on Mar. 28.

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