Largest ever live-fire drill to be staged
South Korea announced land and sea military exercises on Wednesday including its largest-ever live-fire drill near North Korea just as tension on the peninsula was beginning to ease after Pyongyang's attack on a southern island.
The land drill, involving three dozen mobile artillery guns, six fighter jets, multiple launch rocket systems and 800 troops, the largest number of personnel in a single peace-time exercise, will take place on Thursday and is likely irritate the North.
The scale of the drill and the timing, coming right after the tensely staged a live-fire exercise on Monday, indicate South Korea's conservative President Lee Myung-bak sees more political mileage in taking a tough military stance rather than reverting to dialogue, despite overtures from Pyongyang.
Lee's government was heavily criticized at home for a perceived weak response to North Korea's shelling of the southern island of Yeonpyeong last month.
"We'll be sure to deal a punishing blow if the North tries to repeat the kind of situation like the artillery shelling of Yeonpyeong," Brigadier General Ju Eun-shik said in a statement.
South Korea is also holding three days of live-firing naval drills off the peninsula's east coast starting on Wednesday, a media official at the Defense Ministry said.
He would not provide details. Yonhap news agency said the drills were taking place 100 km (60 miles) south of the maritime border with North Korea and involved at least six naval vessels.
"The drills are an indication that (the South) is aiming to keep tensions very high, partly because of the possibility of the North striking back," said Kim Yong-hyun of Dongguk University.
"Dialogue is clearly not high on the agenda. It's still very much in the mode of how they can respond to incidents like the one on Yeonpyeong and to show that response in the future will be overwhelming."
The South Korean Army is making no secret that the drill is aimed at displaying its firepower to its neighbor.
"Yes, it will be a show of force against that," an army officer said, when asked if the shelling of Yeonpyeong last month was a factor in the land drill's planning.
He said similar drills had been staged previously on more than 50 occasions, but the scale this time was unprecedented.
"The scale of mechanized assets taking place is enormous. When we would normally have 6 K-9 mechanized artillery, we'll have 36. We'll have the F-15 jets firing. We'll have choppers. You can say most of the mechanized assets taking part will be firing live ammunition."
It will take place in the Pocheon region, less than 50 km (30 miles) north of downtown Seoul.
N.Korea criticises S.Korean "warmongers" for exercise
North Korea criticised South Korea's "warmonger" military for a major firing exercise set to start later Thursday, saying the drill is aggressive in nature.
"These warmongers said they would have joint live-fire drills including F-15K (aircraft), tanks and cannons at one of the training sites in Pocheon," the North's official news agency said early Thursday.
In a relatively mildly worded commentary, it described the four-day naval drill as "fanatical drills for invasion of North Korea" and accused Seoul of trying to disguise the "aggressive characteristics" of the exercises.
Though North Korea stays silent as the South is preparing the latest drill, it has had extra surface-to-ship and surface-to-air missiles ready near the western coast since early this week in response to a South Korean artillery drill on Yeonpyeong Island, which took place on Monday.
"The North has deployed more SA-2 surface-to-air missiles and Silkworm surface-to-ship missiles at Cape Deungsan on the western coast," in addition to multiple rocket launchers and coastal artillery, a South Korean government source said Tuesday. "It seemed ready to launch some of the surface-to-ship missiles, so our naval ships moved out of range."
The surface-to-ship missiles have a range of 83-95 km, while the Soviet-made SA-2 surface-to-air missile has a range of 30-40 km, which could pose a threat to South Korean fighter jets in operations over areas near the Northern Limit Line, the de-facto maritime border.
Chance of all-out war slim, but situation still worrisome
Zhang Zhaozhong, a professor at the National Defense University. uspected another incident similar to the recent Yeongpyong Island artillery exchange will occur within a year, perhaps on the peninsula. He doesn't see it escalating to that point soon, though.
Dmitri Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center specializing in Korean Peninsula issues said, "The South Korean leadership simply felt, mainly for domestic political reasons, that it had to respond to North Korean provocations. I don't think either Beijing or Moscow seriously believed that Seoul would cancel its drill because of their appeal."
And Yang Danzhi, a researcher at the Institute of Asia- Pacific Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said in a report released Tuesday that "China's influence in Korean Peninsula issues has dropped."
"Tensions on the peninsula have brewed a tripartite military alliance between Washington, Seoul and Tokyo, and they gave the USGeorge Washington aircraft carrier an excuse to enter the Yellow Sea," he said. "While deterring North Korea, the US is also trying to squeeze China's influence in the region. That is part of Washington's strategy to make a bold return to Asia."
"It is really difficult to restart the Six-Party Talks under the current conditions. Beijing may have to make changes to its diplomatic approach. However, it is still a key player for turning the tide," Yang added.
South Korea announced land and sea military exercises on Wednesday including its largest-ever live-fire drill near North Korea just as tension on the peninsula was beginning to ease after Pyongyang's attack on a southern island.
The land drill, involving three dozen mobile artillery guns, six fighter jets, multiple launch rocket systems and 800 troops, the largest number of personnel in a single peace-time exercise, will take place on Thursday and is likely irritate the North.
The scale of the drill and the timing, coming right after the tensely staged a live-fire exercise on Monday, indicate South Korea's conservative President Lee Myung-bak sees more political mileage in taking a tough military stance rather than reverting to dialogue, despite overtures from Pyongyang.
Lee's government was heavily criticized at home for a perceived weak response to North Korea's shelling of the southern island of Yeonpyeong last month.
"We'll be sure to deal a punishing blow if the North tries to repeat the kind of situation like the artillery shelling of Yeonpyeong," Brigadier General Ju Eun-shik said in a statement.
South Korea is also holding three days of live-firing naval drills off the peninsula's east coast starting on Wednesday, a media official at the Defense Ministry said.
He would not provide details. Yonhap news agency said the drills were taking place 100 km (60 miles) south of the maritime border with North Korea and involved at least six naval vessels.
"The drills are an indication that (the South) is aiming to keep tensions very high, partly because of the possibility of the North striking back," said Kim Yong-hyun of Dongguk University.
"Dialogue is clearly not high on the agenda. It's still very much in the mode of how they can respond to incidents like the one on Yeonpyeong and to show that response in the future will be overwhelming."
The South Korean Army is making no secret that the drill is aimed at displaying its firepower to its neighbor.
"Yes, it will be a show of force against that," an army officer said, when asked if the shelling of Yeonpyeong last month was a factor in the land drill's planning.
He said similar drills had been staged previously on more than 50 occasions, but the scale this time was unprecedented.
"The scale of mechanized assets taking place is enormous. When we would normally have 6 K-9 mechanized artillery, we'll have 36. We'll have the F-15 jets firing. We'll have choppers. You can say most of the mechanized assets taking part will be firing live ammunition."
It will take place in the Pocheon region, less than 50 km (30 miles) north of downtown Seoul.
N.Korea criticises S.Korean "warmongers" for exercise
North Korea criticised South Korea's "warmonger" military for a major firing exercise set to start later Thursday, saying the drill is aggressive in nature.
"These warmongers said they would have joint live-fire drills including F-15K (aircraft), tanks and cannons at one of the training sites in Pocheon," the North's official news agency said early Thursday.
In a relatively mildly worded commentary, it described the four-day naval drill as "fanatical drills for invasion of North Korea" and accused Seoul of trying to disguise the "aggressive characteristics" of the exercises.
Though North Korea stays silent as the South is preparing the latest drill, it has had extra surface-to-ship and surface-to-air missiles ready near the western coast since early this week in response to a South Korean artillery drill on Yeonpyeong Island, which took place on Monday.
"The North has deployed more SA-2 surface-to-air missiles and Silkworm surface-to-ship missiles at Cape Deungsan on the western coast," in addition to multiple rocket launchers and coastal artillery, a South Korean government source said Tuesday. "It seemed ready to launch some of the surface-to-ship missiles, so our naval ships moved out of range."
The surface-to-ship missiles have a range of 83-95 km, while the Soviet-made SA-2 surface-to-air missile has a range of 30-40 km, which could pose a threat to South Korean fighter jets in operations over areas near the Northern Limit Line, the de-facto maritime border.
Chance of all-out war slim, but situation still worrisome
Zhang Zhaozhong, a professor at the National Defense University. uspected another incident similar to the recent Yeongpyong Island artillery exchange will occur within a year, perhaps on the peninsula. He doesn't see it escalating to that point soon, though.
Dmitri Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center specializing in Korean Peninsula issues said, "The South Korean leadership simply felt, mainly for domestic political reasons, that it had to respond to North Korean provocations. I don't think either Beijing or Moscow seriously believed that Seoul would cancel its drill because of their appeal."
And Yang Danzhi, a researcher at the Institute of Asia- Pacific Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said in a report released Tuesday that "China's influence in Korean Peninsula issues has dropped."
"Tensions on the peninsula have brewed a tripartite military alliance between Washington, Seoul and Tokyo, and they gave the USGeorge Washington aircraft carrier an excuse to enter the Yellow Sea," he said. "While deterring North Korea, the US is also trying to squeeze China's influence in the region. That is part of Washington's strategy to make a bold return to Asia."
"It is really difficult to restart the Six-Party Talks under the current conditions. Beijing may have to make changes to its diplomatic approach. However, it is still a key player for turning the tide," Yang added.
