[USFK Forums] Editorial: N. K. complains again [Korea Herald]

[C. Y. Lee]

Uploaded by C. Y. Lee on Wednesday, March 15, 2006

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[EDITORIAL] N.K. complains again

The Korea Herald, Tuesday, March 14, 2006

As it did in August last year, and almost every time there was a military exercise in South Korea, Pyongyang has lodged a strong protest against the annual Foal Eagle-RSOI drill to be held here later this month. Along with the complaint, the North unilaterally postponed the inter-Korean ministerial talks scheduled for March 28-31.

By now, we in the South are accustomed to the North canceling or postponing scheduled events, as it has done this frequently over the decades of inter-Korean dialogue. But Pyongyang's delaying of the next cabinet-level talks is really hard to understand because on their agenda is Seoul's rice and fertilizer aid to the North, which is an urgent matter considering the approach of the rice farming season when food grain and fertilizer is much in need.

Only the rigidity of a communist mentality may provide an explanation. The Korean and U.S. military authorities have explained numerous times the defensive nature of their joint exercises, Ulchi Focus Lens in August, which is mainly a computer-simulated war game, and Foal Eagle exercises in the spring. The RSOI or the "Reception, Staging, Onward Movement and Integration" command post exercise which began in 1994 is being conducted simultaneously with Foal Eagle.

North Koreans must know that these joint exercises, whose designations have changed over the years, date back to the late 1960s when Pyongyang's campaign of violence against the South peaked with the capture of a U.S. intelligence ship and a commando raid in Seoul. They are held annually at great cost to both the Korean and U.S. governments because of continuing North Korean belligerence.

Inter-Korean talks on whatever level are aimed to build mutual trust and reduce tension between the two sides and we believe that South-North ties have considerably matured through ever-expanding official and private-level contacts, and economic cooperation projects. The time has come for the Pyongyang authorities to keep themselves from being unnecessarily allergic to military drills taking place here.


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2006.03.14