Korean peninsula crisis: RoK fires into disputed waters despite DPRK's warnings

Parthy

Air Warrior
Senior Member
Joined
Aug 18, 2010
Messages
1,314
Likes
149
North Korea says won't hit back at South Korea, open to UN experts

YEONPYEONG ISLAND: North Korea Monday forswore retaliation against a South Korean live-fire drill and held out an olive branch over its nuclear drive, raising hopes for an easing to the region's worst crisis in years.

The communist state said it "did not feel any need to retaliate against every despicable military provocation", despite previously vowing a deadly riposte to the South's drill on the border island of Yeonpyeong.

"The world should properly know who is the true champion of peace and who is the real provocateur of a war," the North's military command said in a statement on the official news agency KCNA.

North Korea had used a November 23 live-fire exercise by South Korean marines on Yeonpyeong to justify a bombardment of the Yellow Sea island that killed four people.

South Korea, defying Chinese and Russian pressure, went ahead with another exercise on Monday that involved heavy artillery, air force jets and the reported deployment of two naval destroyers.

The drill came after the UN Security Council Sunday failed to agree a statement on the Korean crisis, with diplomats saying that China had refused to allow any public condemnation of its communist allies in Pyongyang.

China, in commenting on the South's drill, called for maximum restraint.

"No one has any right to preach or promote conflict or war, and no one has any right to cause bloodshed between the peoples in the north and south of the peninsula," vice foreign minister Cui Tiankai told reporters.

Seoul, which was outraged last month by the first shelling of civilian areas since the 1950-53 Korean War, rejected criticism from Beijing and Moscow.

"As a sovereign nation, it is our just right to stage a military exercise for the defence of our territory... nobody can intervene," President Lee Myung-Bak said, after winning reaffirmations of US and Japanese support.

Yonhap news agency said the South fired 1,500 rounds from various guns including K-9 self-propelled howitzers, 105mm howitzers and 81mm mortars during the drill.

Last week, as South Korean forces prepared for the live firing, North Korea threatened a new attack that would be "deadlier (than November 23)... in terms of the powerfulness and sphere of the strike".

But its language promising restraint was very different, and was accompanied by conciliatory gestures offered during a visit to Pyongyang by veteran US troubleshooter Bill Richardson.

Richardson, a former US ambassador to the UN, said North Korea was ready to permit the return of UN nuclear inspectors booted out in April 2009, agreeing to grant them access to a newly unveiled uranium enrichment plant.

The New Mexico governor said Pyongyang was also prepared to negotiate "a deal for a third party, such as South Korea, to buy fresh-fuel rods from North Korea".

The North would discuss a military commission, grouping representatives from the two Koreas plus the United States, "to monitor and prevent conflicts in the disputed areas of the West (Yellow) Sea".

And it was ready to create "a hotline between the North Korean and South Korean militaries to avert potential crises", Richardson said in a statement, before his expected departure for Beijing on Tuesday.

In Pyongyang over the weekend, the US official met top nuclear negotiator Kim Kye-Gwan and Major General Pak Rim-Su, who leads North Korean forces along the tense border with the South.

Richardson said he was "very encouraged" that North Korea's military had vowed no retaliation after South Korea's exercise of Monday.

"The result is that South Korea was able to flex its muscles, and North Korea reacted in a statesmanlike manner," he said.

"I hope this will signal a new chapter and a round of dialogue to lessen tension on the Korean peninsula."

But South Korean foreign ministry spokesman Kim Young-Sun was cautious about the nuclear offer.

Even if the North were to permit return of UN atomic inspectors, he said, "we will have to make an overall assessment based on how much access is given to the inspectors and what the North's intentions were (in accepting them)".

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/rest-of-world/North-Korea-says-wont-hit-back-at-South-Korea-open-to-UN-experts-/articleshow/7135026.cms#ixzz18fzwNHWw
 

Parthy

Air Warrior
Senior Member
Joined
Aug 18, 2010
Messages
1,314
Likes
149
China on S Korea drill: No one should 'promote conflict'

China Monday called for calm on the Korean peninsula, saying no one had a right to "preach or promote conflict" after South Korea staged a live-fire military exercise on a frontline border island.

Beijing, North Korea's main ally, had earlier warned that any bloodshed on the Korean peninsula would be a "national tragedy", as tensions soared in the build-up for the Monday drill on the island bombarded by Pyongyang last month.

"China always maintains that peace and stability must be maintained on the peninsula. This is a goal we have been working very hard to achieve all along," Vice Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai told reporters.

"No one has any right to preach or promote conflict or war, and no one has any right to cause bloodshed between the peoples in the north and south of the peninsula," he said when asked to comment on the drill carried out by Seoul.

In his comments, delivered at a press conference following a meeting with Australian officials on human rights issues, Cui neither directly criticised the South nor warned Beijing's ally Pyongyang against retaliation.

The Chinese official said dialogue was the only way forward to resolve the crisis sparked by the North's November 23 shelling of Yeonpyeong island, which left four people dead including two civilians.

Pyongyang has warned it would retaliate if Seoul went ahead with the military exercise.

"In recent weeks and months, we have had quite intensive diplomacy with the relevant parties related to the Korean peninsula," Cui said.

"Whatever the differences and disputes relevant parties may have, they can only be addressed through dialogue and negotiation rather than by conflict or war."

US troubleshooter Bill Richardson, who was wrapping up a trip to Pyongyang as the drill was carried out, has described the situation on the peninsula as a "tinderbox" and urged North Korea to show "maximum restraint" over the drill.

Earlier, China's deputy permanent envoy to the United Nations, Wang Min, told an emergency meeting of the Security Council that further bloodshed on the Korean peninsula would be a "national tragedy", Xinhua news agency reported.

Wang said that "bloodshed and conflict would lead to a national tragedy of fratricide" between the two Koreas, damage regional stability and affect neighbouring countries, the report said.


http://www.brahmand.com/news/China-on-S-Korea-drill-No-one-should-promote-conflict/5860/1/17.html
 

Parthy

Air Warrior
Senior Member
Joined
Aug 18, 2010
Messages
1,314
Likes
149
"Whatever the differences and disputes relevant parties may have, they can only be addressed through dialogue and negotiation rather than by conflict or war."
Could you believe this?? China turned to be a peace-maker!!! :emot0:
 

lurker

Regular Member
Joined
Nov 5, 2009
Messages
74
Likes
2
North Korea got the legitimacy it wanted by surviving, South Korea got its drill and is now able to deescalate, US was able to showcase its support for South Korea throughout the incident, while only China seems to be left with egg on its face. It was impotent throughout the crisis, and has alienated further South Korea and Japan by rhetorically siding with N Korea during the crisis. Afterwards it backtracked and now will look weak to its own nationalist citizenry, and unreliable to North Korea (though they have no choice in any case). Good Show!:emot112:
 
Joined
Feb 16, 2009
Messages
29,799
Likes
48,280
Country flag
Its a suicidal move by China,her continued support to "ROGUE" North Korea would worsen her diplomatic relations with both Japan and South Korea.BTW north has the densest SAM cover for any nation while South has a very impressive Air power!
China has to prop up her proxies if she loses them she loses all the hard work that went into building them up while pretending to be uninvolved.
 

Tshering22

Sikkimese Saber
Senior Member
Joined
Aug 20, 2010
Messages
7,869
Likes
23,213
Country flag
^^^ Proxies also need to have some credibility of themselves as well which neither North Korea nor Pakistan have around the world and whatever perceptual reputation these 2 are having in some countries and among certain people, that also seems to be waning. It is a matter of time before the "never give up on them" attitude of Chinese government is bound to change asa growing disillusionment of both these rogue states continues to grow and near a bursting point. Nuclearizing a rabid regime and another a terror-sponsor will only put further strain on reputation that China wishes to create of a "peaceful rise". It is easy to put the blame by saying "countries are joining US bandwagon", but the real reasons are very well known to leaders of the CCP themselves.
 

JustForLaughs

Regular Member
Joined
Dec 23, 2010
Messages
190
Likes
0
yeah, easy for you to say sitting safe with your comp. you arent the one who has to go to war and risk getting bombed.
 

Parthy

Air Warrior
Senior Member
Joined
Aug 18, 2010
Messages
1,314
Likes
149
US warns N Korea on S Korea drills


The White House on Wednesday warned North Korea that there was no reason for it to respond to South Korea's military drills as they were "defensive" in nature and well publicised in advance.

South Korea was meanwhile preparing a major show of military strength with a live-fire exercise involving fighter aircraft and tanks near the tense North Korean border in an apparent attempt to deter another strike by Pyongyang.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs argued that the maneuvers had been announced well in advance and were transparent and defensive and "should in no way engender a response from the North Koreans."


http://www.brahmand.com/news/US-warns-N-Korea-on-S-Korea-drills/5882/1/14.html
 

Latest Replies

Global Defence

New threads

Articles

Top