Will we see a more proactive South Korea?
While I’m hearing a lot of commentary on what Obama should and shouldn’t do with his North Korea problem, I am curious as to what South Korea is thinking.
I have been told by contacts in South Korea that these latest moves by the DPRK have not been able to break through the average South Korean’s desensitized shell. Indeed, South Korean headlines seem to suggest the South is just as obsessed with the nuclear test’s affect on the economy, if not more so than what it means as a safety concern on the peninsula.
While it is true that Lee Myung-bak came into office on hopes of improving South Korea’s economic woes first and foremost, he was also voted into the Blue House because of his vows to take a stronger stance on North Korea compared to the late President Roh.
It seems South Korea under Lee is starting to show some initiative, although some say it is more symbolic in nature:
The South Korean administration announced on the 26th that it would join the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), which South Korea had delayed joining due to factors in inter-Korean relations, the Hyundai Asan employee issue and the other pending complications. This firm move to sign up is a clear countermeasure against North Korea’s second nuclear test and short-range missile launches.
[…]
Vice Director of the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses Kim Tae Woo pointed out that the PSI has limited value in the case of South Korea because, “The Inter-Korean Maritime Agreement is in force, and armed collisions between North and South can occur, so South Korea cannot forcibly search suspicious North Korean vessels. Therefore, joining the PSI is a symbolic gesture.
South Korea joining the PSI is promising (although probably ineffective) but the fact that it took so long to sign up in the first place is a bit worrying and reminiscent of the soft policies of the Roh years which centered on concerns over how policies would affect inter-Korean relations.
I liked Lee’s campaign stance on North Korea. It’ll be interesting to see how he deals with the issue now. While I agree, the nuclear test was probably more of a test directed toward Obama than toward Lee, it is still an opportunity for South Korea to step up to the plate and show its toughness as well.
I hate to be a spelling Nazi, but “proactive,” like the also commonly misspelled “expat,” has no hyphen. No more than “reactive.”
The extraneous dash is only one minor problem in an otherwise good post, but I disagree that ROK’s PSI participation will be merely symbolic. South Korea appears to be doing some serious work fighting pirates, and it seems a similar drive could be applied to PSI.
I also wouldn’t fault Lee for the foot-dragging. South Korea joining the PSI has the potential to put ROK forces into military confrontation with DPRK vessels, and there had to be a certain threshold reached (in terms of North Korea’s own outrageous behavior) to justify joining PSI and putting South Korea on the path to possible confrontation. Had Lee been president in 2006 during the first nuclear or meant-to-look-nuclear blast, then we might have seen it then.
I’ll fix error. Thanks.
This is one of the things that would change if Japan made moves to go through the prolonged process of changing its constitution and beefing up whatever specific tactical arms it would need to have a first-strike capability.
When was the last time East Asia had a conniption fit over the “re-militarization” of Japan? (Dokdo doesn’t count…)…
Was it all the way back in the early to mid-1990s?
There was a short period of noise when Japanese society got up in arms about NK’s first ICBM test that flew over their islands, but I can’t think of the time of the last big brouhaha that extended over a considerable period of time….. I’m thinking it was the Gulf War (Iraq War I) when elements of the Japanese government wanted to join more into the war effort and the US welcomed it —- but other elements in Japan and most of Asia went nuts about it.
I just want to see what the north will say about this. After all wasn’t a move like this supposed to be a “declaration of war”? Now with the south showing some intiative, the heads of Pyongyang have no idea what to do.
ehrm…I believe the North’s responses to previous “declarations of war” from the South were the underground nuclear test and missile tests.
usinkorea wrote:
I think one could argue that the convoluted nature of the Yasukuni Shrine issue is a “conniption fit” over the prospect of a remilitarized Japan.