hankyoreh

Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara

By Kwon Tae-ho, Washington Correstpondent

A key Cheong Wa Dae (the presidential office in South Korea or Blue House) official reported Tuesday that South Korea and the United States have agreed to bomb North Korea using aircraft if North Korea launches additional provocations.

“The two countries agreed to the plan of action after the Yeonpyeong Island artillery attack by North Korea, and that the United States agreed that South Korea should strongly respond to additional provocations in self-defense,” said the official. “This means that when South Korea is attacked, it would actively respond relying not only on weapons in the area, but also mobilizing air power.”

During a meeting of the South Korean, U.S. and Japanese foreign ministers in Washington on Sunday, the U.S. and Japanese foreign ministers reportedly did not raise objections to South Korea’s plan to strongly respond militarily should North Korea commit additional provocations.

A high-ranking South Korean government official met with South Korean correspondents in Washington on Sunday and said, “South Korea has the right to respond in this manner, since it constitutes a response to a North Korean attack rather than a preemptive strike.”

During the tripartite meeting, there even appeared agenda items that seemed to resuscitate the so-called “three way southern alliance” of South Korea, the United States and Japan. In a joint statement, the three foreign ministers said Seoul, Washington and Tokyo had pledged to strengthen their efforts regarding the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) and the East Asia Summit (EAS), and in particular, South Korea and Japan welcomed formal U.S. participation in the ARF starting in 2011.

Requesting anonymity, one diplomatic source said, “The EAS has recently become the multilateral body shown the most concern by Washington, which seeks to intervene politically and militarily in Asia.”

The EAS was launched in 2005 with the intention of checking growing Chinese influence on ASEAN. Participating in the meeting, besides ASEAN state, are Australia, New Zealand, India and other nations trying to check the rise of China. If the United States becomes a formal member next year, it will secure a means to speak against China regarding politics and security in East Asia. It appears South Korea and Japan will become active allies in this.

On Tuesday, Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin told a meeting of major commanders that subordinate commanders will be able to exercise self-defense during provocations and strongly respond until the basis of the enemy threat is eliminated, handing down command guidelines that allows commanders to take measures first, with reports to superiors coming afterwards. Defense Ministry policy director Jang Gwang-il said since the shelling of Yeonpyeong-do, both South Korea and the United States have agreed on the new command guidelines, and that regarding amending the rules of engagement, the Joint Chiefs of Staff would hold working-level meetings with Combined Forces Command and UN Command to consider whether to broadly change the rules of engagement or change just parts of them.

In Yongsan on Wednesday, the South Korean and U.S. chairmen of their respective Joint Chiefs of Staff will meet to discuss a plan to simplify the measures Korea needs to take to gain the approval of both the South Korean chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the head of U.N. Command for responding with aircraft to North Korean provocations.

A government official said maritime fire drills on the Five West Sea Islands, suspended since the Yeonpyeong Island shelling on Nov. 23, would restart next week.

Meanwhile, President Lee Myung-bak said at a Cabinet meeting Tuesday that he would push for the gradual fortification of the Five West Sea Islands, and instructed government ministries to also create conditions, including jobs, that would allow local residents to continue to reside on the islands. Revealed as a plan of consideration by the military after the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island, the fortification of the islands means equipping the islands with underground facilities and air-raid shelters that would allow residents to safely live on the islands, Cheong Wa Dae explained. Authorities reportedly had an eye on Taiwan’s Kinmen Islands, which geopolitically share a similar environment to the Five West Sea Islands.

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