Vol. 74/No. 23      June 14, 2010

Seoul cut off much of its trade with North Korea on May 24, after announcing it had proof that North Korea was responsible for the sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan March 26. Forty-six soldiers died in the explosion, which Seoul charges was caused by a torpedo launched by a North Korean miniature submarine. The North Korean government says the charges are false.

North Korean merchant ships have been banned from using South Korean shipping lanes and South Korean president Lee Myung-bak has threatened to restart propaganda broadcasts along the demilitarized zone (DMZ) that separates the North and South.

The South Korean government is also planning further provocative joint naval maneuvers with U.S. forces over the next few weeks, in the same area where the ship sank. Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that the exercise was part of a larger strategy to detect, track, and counter miniature submarines.  
 
S. Korean business with North
On May 28 representatives of the South Korean companies that operate factories in the Gaeseong Industrial Complex in North Korea near the DMZ held an emergency meeting to propose alternatives to the sanctions.

“Our production activities have already been hit by the South’s latest measure reducing the number of employees by half as well as by the shrinking orders,” one businessman complained to Seoul’s Korea Herald.

More than 110 South Korean companies operate in Gaeseong, employing some 1,000 South Koreans and 42,000 North Korean workers. Operations are continuing there in spite of increased tensions.

Another businessman told the Herald, “We will urge the government to suspend its planned anti-Pyongyang broadcasts.”

Even though recent polls say that 60 percent of people in South Korea support tougher measures against the North, actions that could lead to war with the North are not popular.

The Los Angeles Times noted that a large anti-North Korea rally in Seoul May 27 was made up “almost entirely of people in their 60s and 70s. There were wizened veterans in full-dress uniform.” One speaker called for action to “knock off the mastermind, Kim Jong Il,” the central leader in the North.

But many others in South Korea reject actions that could lead to war.

“We must be softer towards North Korea; we shouldn’t push them to the edge,” Oh Seul Gi, a biology student, told USA Today while meeting her boyfriend, a South Korean soldier. “Instead of strong action, I want flexibility.”

The Democratic Party, the main capitalist opposition in South Korea, has accused President Lee of exploiting the sinking of the warship to bolster his party’s showing in local elections, scheduled to take place June 2.  
 
Washington pressures North Korea
Last year, Washington pushed resolutions through the United Nations tightening draconian sanctions against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, allegedly for conducting an underground nuclear test. Since then it has stepped up the pressure, including inspecting North Korean ships on the high seas. In December the Thai government, at the instigation of Washington, seized a North Korean plane and its cargo and arrested five crew members, claiming there were 35 tons of weapons on board.

There are about 28,500 U.S. troops based in South Korea today and some 32,500 U.S. military personnel stationed across the Korea Strait in Japan. The English-language Korea Times notes, “U.S. stealth bombers are on a standby at Japanese and Guam airbases, ready for a strike on any point in the North within one hour.”

The North Korean government takes the threat of a possible U.S. attack seriously whatever the immediate intentions of Seoul and Washington.

During the 1950-53 Korean War, U.S.-led forces fighting under the United Nations banner conducted a brutal bombing campaign that leveled nearly every building in North Korea. Some 3 million Korean civilians, half a million North Korean soldiers, tens of thousands of Chinese volunteers, and 100,000 South Korean and United Nations soldiers, including 54,000 from the United States, were killed during the U.S.-organized war.

To block future U.S.-led aggression, North Korea has built up a large military force, much of it concentrated near the DMZ, including long-range artillery that can reach Seoul.

Washington has not been successful in getting China, North Korea’s largest trading partner, to back the latest measures.

Instead, after two days of talks with South Korean and Japanese officials, Chinese primer minister Wen Jiabao said, “Most urgent is to dispel the impact of the Cheonan incident, gradually ease tension, and especially avoid a clash.”  
 
 
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