Vol. 74/No. 47      December 13, 2010

The threatening exercises came less than a week after U.S.-South Korean exercises on the island of Yeonpyeong led to the first land-based exchange of artillery fire between North and South Korea since the end of the Korean War in 1953. Two South Korean soldiers and two civilians were killed by artillery fire from North Korea.

According to the U.S. Navy, the West Sea exercises include a guided-missile carrier, three guided missile destroyers, scores of fighter jets, and more than 7,000 troops. The war games will last four days and feature “surface warfare readiness training.”

Such provocations in the Korean Peninsula have taken place for decades, ever since workers and peasants in the north of Korea carried out a socialist revolution following World War II. Washington invaded Korea in 1950 to turn that revolution back, but failed. The U.S. government has kept the country divided into North and South Korea since and has 28,000 troops in the South.

When the Korean War ended in 1953, the United Nations unilaterally declared the Northern Limit Line to be a mere three nautical miles from North Korea’s coast and also designated five islands near that line as South Korean territory, guaranteeing future conflicts would break out. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) has called for a demarcation line of 12 nautical miles from North Korean shores, the norm internationally.

The North and South Korean navies have clashed three times in these water since 1999. Last March the South Korean warship Cheonan was blown up, killing 46 sailors, during joint exercises with the U.S. military. Seoul blamed the DPRK, but Pyongyang denied responsibility.

Washington has used severe economic sanctions as well as military muscle to try to get the DPRK to abandon its nuclear weapons program. Although the U.S. government succeeded in winning North Korean acceptance of a plan to end the program in 2007, the talks broke down when Washington failed to live up to its part of the bargain, which included normalization of relations and delivering much-needed fuel to North Korea. Pyongyang recently announced that it has resumed uranium enrichment.

Washington is now leaning on the government of China to bring the DPRK to heel. Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, urged Beijing to take the lead in demanding compliance from the DPRK. “The one country that has influence in Pyongyang is China,” he said in a November 24 interview on ABC’s “The View.”

Beijing issued a statement November 28 stating its opposition to the U.S.-South Korean maneuvers being carried out without its consent. It called for talks between North Korea and the governments of South Korea, the United States, Japan, Russia, and China. Chinese officials also met with government representatives of both Seoul and Pyongyang.

Rather than accept Beijing’s proposal for talks, the U.S., Japanese, and South Korean governments announced they would hold talks in Washington in early December.

Some 10,000 South Korean cops, veterans, and others demonstrated in Seoul November 29 to demand retaliation against the North. Seoul announced it would toughen its rules of engagement with North Korea and reinforce weaponry on Yeonpyeong. But the government backed down on resuming live-fire drills on Yeonpyeong four hours after announcing they would take place.

An editorial in the North Korean paper Rodong Sinmun said that the DPRK’s uranium enrichment “will be pushed harder” to meet the country’s energy needs. “It would be a miscalculation if the U.S. and the South Korean warlike forces attempt to astound and pressure us by deploying a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.”  
 
 
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