NORTH KOREA BACKS DOWN ON THEIR ATTACK PLANS SOUTH HOLD DRILLS MONDAY WITH OUT INCIDENT
DEC 20 2010
North Korea backed off threats to retaliate against South
Korea for military drills Monday and reportedly offered concessions on its
nuclear program signs it was looking to lower the temperature on the Korean
peninsula after weeks of soaring tensions.
But Pyongyang has feinted toward conciliation before and failed to follow
through.
The North's gestures came after South Korea launched
fighter jets, evacuated hundreds of residents near its tense land
border with the North and sent residents of islands near disputed waters into
underground bunkers in case Pyongyang followed through on its vow to attack
over the drills.
"It appears that deterrence has been restored," said Daniel Pinkston,
Seoul-based analyst with the International Crisis Group think tank. "The North
Koreans only understand force or show of force."
It's not the first time that the North has taken the international community
down this road. The North has previously been accused of using a mix of
aggression and conciliatory gestures to force international negotiations that
usually net it much-needed aid. Real progress, meanwhile, on efforts to rid
the North of its nuclear weapons programs has been rare.
Monday's drills came nearly a month after the North shelled Yeonpyeong Island,
a tiny enclave of fishing communities and military bases about seven miles (11
kilometers) from North Korean shores, in response to an earlier round of South
Korean live-fire maneuvers. The North Korean artillery barrage killed two
marines and two construction workers in its first attack targeting civilian
areas since the 1950-53 Korean War. That clash sent tensions soaring between
the two countries which are still technically at war.
They've remained in a tense standoff since the Nov. 23 attack, and an
emergency meeting of U.N. diplomats in New York on Sunday failed to find any
solution to the crisis.
But Monday brought some of the first positive signs in weeks, as a
high-profile American governor announced what he said were two nuclear
concessions from the North.
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a frequent unofficial envoy to North Korea
and former U.S. ambassador to the U.N., said that during his visit the North
agreed to let U.N. atomic inspectors visit its main nuclear complex to make
sure it's not producing enriched uranium for a nuclear bomb, according to a
statement from his office.
The North expelled U.N. inspectors last year, and last month showed a visiting
American scientist a new, highly advanced uranium enrichment facility that
could give it a second way to make atomic bombs, in addition to its plutonium
program. Richardson also said that Pyongyang was willing to sell fresh fuel
rods, potentially to South Korea.
"We had positive results," Richardson told Associated Press Television News at
the Pyongyang airport on Monday night.
He had been set to brief reporters in Beijing, but his flight was canceled.
"This is the way countries are supposed to act," U.S. State Department
spokesman P.J. Crowley said. "The South Korean exercise was defensive in
nature. The North Koreans were notified in advance. There was no basis for a
belligerent response."
Analyst Baek Seung-joo cautioned that the North's reported concessions are
only a tactic aimed at easing international pressure. Baek, of the state-run
Korea Institute for Defense Analyses in Seoul, said the comments would be
significant if the North made them officially, rather than through Richardson.
The North was only sounding out U.S. and South Korean intentions by talking to
Richardson, Baek said, and if the situation doesn't turn in the North's favor,
it will back away.
Pyongyang is believed to be seeking one-on-one talks with the United States
before returning to stalled nuclear disarmament negotiations hosted by China.
The United States, however, has indicated that a resumption of those talks,
without meaningful movement on past nuclear commitments from the North, could
be seen as tantamount to rewarding North Korea for behaving badly.
China, on the other hand, has urged a resumption of the talks, and over the
weekend, diplomats said it successfully prevented the U.N. Security Council
from issuing a statement condemning the North's shelling as the U.S. and
others had wanted.
Beijing is the North's most important ally and has come under pressure to
leverage its influence to rein in the North in the wake of the attack. On
Monday, a Chinese spokeswoman called again for "maximum restraint" on all
sides just as the North announced it wouldn't retaliate.
Beijing, which provides crucial food and fuel aid to Pyongyang, is wary of
pressuring the North in a way that could destabilize it, fearing in part the
collapse of the government and a flood of refugees across the border into
northeastern China.
It was unclear if Chinese pressure persuaded North Korea not to react to
Monday's drills.
Richardson, in fact, appeared to suggest that his visit contributed to the
North's backing down.
"During my meetings in Pyongyang, I repeatedly pressed North Korea not to
retaliate. The result is that South Korea was able to flex its muscles, and
North Korea reacted in a statesmanlike manner," Richardson said in a
statement. "I hope this will signal a new chapter and a round of dialogue to
lessen tension on the Korean peninsula."
North Korea called Monday's drills a "reckless military provocation" but said
after they ended that it was holding its fire because Seoul had changed its
firing zones.
The official Korean Central News Agency carried a military statement that
suggested that the North viewed Monday's drills differently from the ones that
provoked it last month because South Korean shells landed farther south of the
North's shores.
The North claims the waters around Yeonpyeong as its territory, and during
last month's artillery exchange, the North accused the South of firing
artillery into its waters; the South said it fired shells southward, not
toward the North.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said its artillery Monday was fired in the
same direction toward waters southwest of the island, not toward the North
just as during last month's maneuvers.
"North Korea appeared to have issued this statement because it was afraid" of
a full-blown war with South Korea, a Joint Chiefs of Staff officer said on
condition of anonymity citing department rules.
In Washington, the Pentagon called the drills routine. There was nothing
"provocative, unusual or threatening about them," said U.S. defense spokesman
Lt. Col. Mark Ballesteros.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak ordered
preparations to cope with any possible attack by North Korea, even after the
drills ended.
Several bloody naval skirmishes have occurred along the Koreas' disputed
western sea border in recent years. The North does not recognize the
U.N.-drawn sea border in the area.
Prophecy News - End times Prophecy News for Russia, China, Iran, Bush, World, America, Iraq, Syria, North Korea,
PLEASE SIGN UP AND ADD THESE FREE ADVERTISERS TO YOUR SITE |
||
|
|
|
![]() |
|
|
|
|
|
![]() |
![]() |
|
|
|
|
|
|
![]() |
|
![]() |
|
![]() |
![]() |
|
![]() |
Please rate this site at Just4Christ Top 50 Christian Sites |
![]() |
![]() |
||
![]() |
||
|
||
![]() |