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The June 29 Yellow Sea clash, which sank one South Korean navy boat, killed four South Korean sailors and wounded twenty others, can be safely characterized as an all-familiar Cold-War warrior-type general-purpose anti-North Korean bogy invoked to torpedo the intended James Kelly visit to Pyongyang, to dampen the growing anti-American sentiments in South Korea, and to divert public attention from the arrests of South Korean President Kim Dae Jung’s sons. This picture emerges from a critical look at available facts culled from South Korean, Japanese and American mass media: (1) a South Korean fisherman’s eyewitness account of the naval shootout, (2) specific details of the shooting incident, (3) its timing and (4) its political fallout – who stands to benefit most from the incident. Things, however, are a far cry from the Cold War period. Such an anachronistic anti-North Korean genie has a short-lived life. Pandora’s box has now very few genies left, which are capable of doing much mischief. (1) An Anonymous Young
fisherman’s Eyewitness Account
Yesterday the Korea WebWeekly posted an English version of an eyewitness account of the June 29 Yellow Sea battle by an anonymous young crab fisherman based on Yonpyong-do Island near the scene of the clash. The Korean original was initially posted on a South Korean website and then picked up by the South Korean Yonhap News Agency and Digital Mal (http://www.digitalmal.com/news read.php?no=458) The point of the eyewitness account is that South Korean crab fishing boats violated the North Korean waters and that South Korean navy boats rammed two approaching North Korean patrol boats at a high speed. Nothing is more provocative and dangerous than the act of ramming North Korean patrol boats by South Korean navy boats in North Korean waters. This means that two North Korean navy vessels did not take any action against the four hostile South Korean navy boats while allowing them to approach to the point where they were rammed by the South Korean ships. (2) Specific Details of
the Shootout
The available specific details of the shootout strongly indicate that not so much the North Koreans as the South Koreans provoked the battle as the South Korean speedboats began firing their automatic 20-mm Vulcan Gatling guns at random at the reluctant North Korean boats. The South Korean Defense Department said that one North Korean patrol boat began firing at South Korean ships at a distance of about 450 m. This indicates that the North Korean boats did not begin firing for nearly one minute after the South Korean navy vessels rammed them. It was not until they moved nearly half a kilometer from the South Korean ships that the North Korean ship opened fire on the South Korean ships. In other words, the North Korean patrol boats did not anticipate the South Koreans to take such action and kept their restraint. According to South Korean news accounts, the two North Korean patrol boats are of the SO-1 type, make 25 knots per hour, displace 215 tons, each carrying one 85 mm gun which strikes a target 15.5 km away, one 37 mm gun with a range of 8 km and two 14.5 mm machine-guns with a range of 7 km. The 85 mm gun in question is manually operated and has a firing rate of 24 spm. In short, the North Korean boats are ill prepared for a close battle. On the other hand, the four South Korean boats are better equipped for close combat. They are 156-ton Chamsuri-class speedboats which cruise at 38 knots per hour and are armed with one 76 mm naval gun and two 20 mm Vulcan Gatling guns which have a firing rate of 2,000 spm with a range of 3 km. The automatically primed 20 mm Vulcan guns are capable of wreaking havoc on enemy ships in a close quarter battle. The key lesson that the North Koreans ought to have learned is that the North Koreans must fire a torpedo or long-range guns or an anti-ship missile at a South Korean navy vessel when the enemy ship violates territorial waters and comes within an effective range. However, again the North Koreans restrained their behavior partly because the South Koreas are fellow Koreans, not Americans and partly because the South Koreans were hosting the World Cup soccer games. Apparently the South Korean navy vessels were escorting South Korean fishing boats operating in North Korean waters. The North Koreans had good reason to show tolerance. It is quite obvious that the South Koreans again took advantage of the compatriotic tolerance and self-restraint shown by the North Koreans. The South Koreans expected an easy replay of the June1999 battle that began with South Korean boats ramming North Korean ships and ended with one North Korean torpedo boat sunk and three other ships damaged, scores of soldiers killed or wounded. The South Koreans were lax and full of wishful thinking, expecting to prove themselves like the South Korean elevens making one miracle after another. The North Koreans, however, counterattacked with such a vengeance, as the South Koreans had not imagined. The outcome turned out to be so humiliating to the South Korean military that they managed to produce a digital-camera photo showing one North Korean patrol boat engulfed in flames and smoke while being towed by the other ship. They should be courageous enough to release a full set of videotape that recorded the whole battle. Unsatisfied, the South Korean conservative forces are now calling on the South Korean defense chief to take responsibility and resign. (3) Timing
The sea battle came at a time when the U.S. State Department announced that Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly would travel all the way to Pyongyang in the second week of July to resume the long-stalled negotiations with North Korea. After a long lull in North Korean-American talks caused by Bush’s hard-line policy, Washington showed signs of restarting talks with North Korea. Washington, Tokyo and Seoul reached consensus to begin dialogue with Pyongyang to open an opportunity of improved relations with the former enemy. The deadline of 2003 for completion of light-water reactors is fast ticking like a time bomb, which has a great risk of producing a nightmare scenario for the Bush Administration. The naval shootout came at a time when the anti-American feelings, once a minority movement limited to student militants and labor activists, developed into a national syndrome, uniting almost all the South Korean people. They were supplied with a series of ammunition, including Bush’s axis of evil statement, the Salt Lake skating humiliation, and the killing of two South Korean junior high school girls by an American armored vehicle. Such was anti-Americanism that President Kim Dae Jung stayed away from the June 10 World Cup game between South Korea and the U.S., while ordering some 10,000 army soldiers into action to surround the stadium. Almost all the South Korean soccer fans wore red T-shirts, chanting, “Again 1966!” (Repeat the 1966 North Korean success) and “Be the Red Devils!” (partly meaning “Be Reds!”) No longer is the red color taboo. The incident occurred when two sons of Kim Dae Jung were arrested, one before the World Cup and the other while the World Cup was under way. Kim Dae Jung found himself totally embarrassed, disgraced as a lame duck like his predecessor Kim Young Sam. Kim Yong Sam had his second son arrested, implicated in a financial scandal. Kim Dae Jung’s two sons are charged with receiving briberies. (4) Immediate Political
Fallout: Who Stands to Profit Most
A mere look at the political fallout of the naval battle readily shows who stands to profit most. The immediate public reaction to the reported naval shootout is a foregone conclusion: an all-familiar picture of the reckless North Koreans caught red-handed. A logical conclusion is that some anti-reunification conservative forces in South Korea collaborated with their counterparts within the Bush Administration in engineering the shocking incident in the common interests of achieving the following three key objectives. Circumstantial evidence is overwhelming. June saw a total of over 190 reconnaissance flights by American spy planes as against a monthly average of 150. On June 26, three days before the incident, U.S. forces conducted a full range of war games in South Korea, including simulated bombing raids against North Korean targets, not to mention joint American-South Korean naval war games. Bush threatened to launch a preemptive strike against North Korea. To
Subvert the intended visit to North Korea of Assistant Secretary of State James
Kelly for the resumption of talks between the two enemies It is true that the Americans have yet to receive an official North Korean agreement on the proposed Pyongyang visit of a U.S. delegation led by James Kelly for July 10-12 talks; there was a nagging misgiving in some quarters that James Kelly would be fascinated by the irresistible personal charm of North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong Il as the then Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was when she was received by the North Korean leader in Pyongyang two years ago. Some conservatives remember with dread Albright beaming with a smile in a meeting with Kim Jong Il. A successful meeting between Kelly and Kim Jong Il would pave the way for an eventual visit of Powell and Bush to Pyongyang for an historic North Korean-American summit, which eluded Clinton. The Washington Post reported that the Bush Administration was considering one option of withdrawing American troops from South Korea to hammer out a package settlement with North Korea. Those conservative forces in Seoul and Washington are the last to imagine James Kelly favorably impressed by Kim Jong Il. Warming ties between Pyongyang and Washington would be too unsettling for them. From Kim Jong Il’s perspective, it does not matter at all whether James Kelly will come or not now, whether Powell or Bush will fly to Pyongyang. The Americans will have to choose from among the three options: first, going to war against North Korea, second, letting the North Koreans defreeze their nuclear program, and third, negotiating a package solution capped by a peace treaty and full diplomatic relations. The North Koreans are fully ready for nuclear exchange if the Americans so desire. To dampen the fast growing anti-American movement before it is too late, before they develop into a powerful force calling for the withdrawal of American military forces and emancipation of South Korea from American vassalage. Such expansion of anti-Americanism is not the work of Pyongyang. It is a least intended product of Bush’s outdated Korea policy, that is, a godsend for Kim Jong Il. Bush has made the South Korean public anti-American and most open to North Korean overtures. The South Korean military views North Korea as their main enemy, whereas the South Korean people look upon Bush as the most unwanted person who stands in the way of Korean peace, reconciliation and reunification. One of the slogans of the anti-American movement in South Korea is “U.S. forces out of Korea!” South Korea is no longer a haven for American troops: rising prices and anti-Americanism. There is no practical way of putting the anti-American movement under control. To divert public attention from the arrests of two sons of Kim Dae Jung’s This may partially explain why Kim Dae Jung issued an unusually strong warning to North Korea, threatening to take military retaliation. He may have been relieved to see the naval engagement steal the spotlight from the arrests of his sons. It is an open secret that Kim Dae Jung and his wife pledged not to follow the example of Kim Young Sam, that is, have any of their sons arrested for taking bribes. Kim Dae Jung and his wife have found themselves prisoner to South Korean tradition. Such a financial scandal is part and parcel of South Korean political tradition. Gen. Park Chung Hee, Gen. Chun Doo Hwan and Gen. Roh Tae Woo amassed a huge fortune estimated at millions of dollars while in office, a phenomenon unthinkable in an advanced country. Syngman Rhee was toppled in a student uprising and died a miserable death in Hawaii. Gen. Park Chung Hee was shot to death by his chief bodyguard in a presidential kisaeng party. Gen. Chun Doo Hwan was a death-row inmate, while Gen. Roh Tae Woo was sentenced to life imprisonment. . Sons of two elected presidents were arrested in a financial scandal. Such a long dismal catalog describes South Korea as a country alien to democratic decency, to be more precise, nothing less than a vassal state of the U.S. A poll shows that most of the South Korean primary school children are the last to dream to become a President. --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.bacIlu Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================ |
