Translated material
War of North and South
The two Koreas entered into armed confrontation
North Korea has once again given the international community a serious reason to talk about it as a state whose actions run counter to the fundamental principles of the United Nations. Yesterday, between 80 and 200 North Korean shells fell on the South Korean island of Yeonphendo, located in the Yellow Sea. Two South Korean Marines were killed, 15 soldiers were wounded, five of them seriously, and three civilians were injured. Up to 70 buildings burned down, the island was cut off from power. "Our army, in accordance with the laws of war and based on the right of self-defense, fired 80 retaliatory salvos," South Korea's Defense Ministry said, calling the incident a "deliberate and planned military provocation." The armed forces of the South are on full combat readiness; the attacked island is patrolled by F-16 fighters of the South Korean Air Force.Yeonpyeongdo is located 80 km northwest of the large South Korean port city of Incheon. Formally, the island is part of this metropolis, which, in turn, has already merged with Seoul (by the way, it was in Incheon that the Russian squadron visited two weeks ago to pick up the hull of the legendary cruiser "Varyag" handed over by the city authorities). At the beginning of this year, the population of Yeonphendo was about 1.8 thousand people, including military base personnel. When the shelling began, some civilians fled on boats, but the majority - about 1.6 thousand people - hid in bomb shelters.
After an emergency government meeting, part of which was held in an underground bunker on the territory of the presidential palace in Seoul, South Korean head of state Lee Myung-bak warned Pyongyang of “strict retaliatory measures if provocations continue.” He instructed the ministers to take measures to prevent the escalation of the conflict: “We must carefully manage the situation to prevent the scale of the clash from escalating.” In response, the command of the DPRK army threatened to launch “merciless military strikes” on South Korea, and the North Korean news agency KCNA reported that in the clash at Yeonpyeongdo, the first shots were fired by the South Korean side, although there is no information about the casualties of the northerners yet.
“What happened deserves condemnation,” said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. “Those who initiated and resorted to shelling the South Korean island certainly take on enormous responsibility.” The minister emphasized that Moscow has repeatedly warned that tension in this area is growing and called on North and South Korea “not to give a reason for the situation to slide into a forceful solution. We urge immediate action to calm her down and prevent similar actions in the future. But the most important thing now is to immediately stop exchanging blows.”
“Unfortunately, as a result of the incident there are dead and wounded,” said Sergei Lavrov and recalled that this is the third such incident this year, “but the first two were single exchanges of blows, and here everything can slide into hostilities.” . In January and August, the North and South exchanged artillery salvoes in the area of the demarcation line in the Yellow Sea, recognized by the UN, but not by the DPRK. In March, the South Korean corvette Cheonan sank there, killing 46 crew members. Seoul, Washington and their allies considered the tragedy to be the result of a North Korean torpedo attack, but Moscow and Beijing considered this unproven.
Seoul does not rule out that the shelling of Yeonpyeongdo was Pyongyang’s reaction to the Hoguk military exercises, which began the day before yesterday on the west coast of South Korea, with the participation of 70 thousand troops. These exercises are held annually, and the North vigorously protests every time, calling them “a rehearsal for the aggression of the United States and South Korea against the DPRK.” And last week, the South Korean Ministry of Unification Affairs in a special report concluded that the “solar heat” policy pursued towards the North in 1998-2008 did not produce positive results: “Pyongyang has not abandoned the program to create its own missile- nuclear weapons. The sinking of the Cheonan shows that North Korea's policy has not changed despite the assistance we provided." Lee Myung-bak, who was elected president in 2008, strictly conditioned the provision of this aid on the North's abandonment of nuclear programs.
“Lee Myung-bak changed the course of the previous two presidents, and the current conflict is caused by a bitter confrontation between the North and the South. But the northerners are unlikely to further escalate tension by force, although after this incident it will most likely remain on the peninsula for a long time,” Roald Savelyev, a senior researcher at the Center for Korean Studies at the Institute of Far Eastern Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told Vremya Novostey. Our interlocutor is confident that the incident “with the efforts of Seoul and its allies will not pass by the UN Security Council.”
“Pyongyang should not be deluded. America will never back down from its commitment to ensuring the security of the Republic of Korea. We will never give it up,” said US President Barack Obama, who was awakened by the alarming news at four o’clock in the morning by his national security adviser.
In Congress, Obama was unanimously supported by both Democrats and Republicans. “The United States strongly condemns this attack and calls on North Korea to cease its hostile actions,” the White House said in a statement, adding that the United States is “firmly committed to the defense of the Republic of Korea” and intends to “maintain close contact with it.” There are currently about 28,000 US troops stationed in South Korea. The Japanese government called the DPRK's action "intolerable" and decided to "carefully coordinate its efforts" with the United States and South Korea.
Many foreign and Russian experts linked North Korea’s attack with the scandal surrounding its new uranium enrichment capabilities (see Vremya Novostey on November 23) and Pyongyang’s desire to resume negotiations with the United States, which is opposed by the Americans, who demand that North Korea prove its readiness for nuclear disarmament . “Russia, of course, will try to participate in the analysis of the situation and negotiate with colleagues from North Korea in order to prevent its complete international isolation, although such negotiations are usually very difficult,” noted First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs Leonid Slutsky. A member of this committee, Ruslan Kondratov, believes that Pyongyang’s show of force has two goals: “to warn other countries from interfering in the affairs of North Korea” and “to prevent possible disagreements in the political elite of the DPRK in connection with the upcoming transfer of power.” A month and a half ago, his youngest son, Kim Jong-un, was actually declared the successor of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.
Yesterday was a memorable date - the 60th anniversary of the start of the devastating counterattack launched by Chinese volunteers against the Americans on the territory of the DPRK in 1950 during the Korean War. Beijing remains Pyongyang's closest ally, but China also expressed concern over the Yeonpyeong-do shelling, calling on both Korean states to make efforts to establish lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula. “This is the official, public position of Beijing,” Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences orientalist Vasily Mikheev noted to Vremya Novostey. - And there is also a position addressed directly to the North Korean leadership. It boils down to the fact that Pyongyang must be responsible and follow its obligations on the issue of nuclear disarmament, otherwise it will be bad for it. For now, the North Koreans are counting, as they did in the past, to “raise the stakes in the game” and get help. But the Americans and South Koreans no longer want to play such a game.”