By Martin Fackler and Mark McDonald
SEOUL, South Korea — Responding to growing public criticism after a deadly North Korean attack, President Lee Myung-bak accepted the resignation Thursday of his defense minister and changed his military's rules of engagement to make it easier for South Korea to strike back with greater force, especially if civilians are threatened.
The government also announced plans to increase the number of troops and heavy weapons on Yeonpyeong Island, where two marines and two civilians died Tuesday in an artillery fusillade from North Korea.
Despite warnings from North Korea that any new provocation would be met with more attacks, Washington and Seoul pushed ahead with plans for military drills starting Sunday involving a nuclear-powered U.S. aircraft carrier in waters south of this week's skirmish.
But Lee, who came to office two years ago vowing to get tough with North Korea, has little maneuvering room in formulating a response. Although the attack appears to have pushed anti-North Korean sentiment to its highest level in years, there is little public support for taking military action against North Korea that might lead to an escalation of hostilities.
"North Korea has nothing to lose, while we have everything to lose," said Kang Won-taek, a Seoul National University politics professor. "Lee Myung-bak has no choice but to soften his tone to keep this country peaceful. It is not an appealing choice, but it is the only realistic choice."
South Korea's powerful eastern neighbor is also counseling restraint. China's Prime Minister Wen Jiabao said Thursday that Beijing opposed any provocative military behavior by either side on the Korean Peninsula, the state-run news agency Xinhua reported.
North Korea warned Thursday through its official news agency of further retaliation if provoked by South Korea, saying its military would "launch second and third strong physical retaliations without hesitation if South Korean warmongers carry out reckless military provocations."
In response, Lee said only, "We should not drop our guard in preparation for the possibility of another provocation by North Korea," according to his chief spokesman, Hong Sang-pyo. "A provocation like this can recur anytime."
Lee's changes in the rules of engagement were similarly restrained. South Korean defenses on five coastal islands in the Yellow Sea had been set up primarily to guard against possible amphibious landings by North Korean troops. Critics said Thursday that the military hadn't anticipated the possibility of an attack by North Korean artillery batteries, which are reportedly in caves along the North's coastline.
"Now an artillery battle has become the new threat, so we're reassessing the need to strengthen defenses," Lee told lawmakers. The new measures he outlined include doubling the number of howitzers and upgrading other weaponry.
The new rules of engagement will be based on whether military or civilian sites are the targets, said Hong. Previously, South Korean forces were allowed to respond only in kind — if North Korea fired artillery, the South Korean military could answer only with artillery — to contain any dispute. Now, officials said, the military would be allowed to respond with greater force.
The aftermath of this week's artillery attack was not the first time Lee has come under criticism after a deadly provocation by North Korea. Two years ago, when a South Korean tourist was shot by a sentry at a North Korean mountain resort, his government's response amounted to a slap on the wrist: suspending tours to the resort and barring South Korean civic groups from visiting the North.
More recently was Lee's response in March to the sinking of a South Korean warship, the Cheonan, killing 46 sailors. Lee at first seemed to stall by waiting for the results of an international investigation, which took two months to conclude that the ship had been sunk by a North Korean torpedo. When he responded, it was with relatively mild measures such as reducing South Korea's already minuscule trade with North Korea, resuming the South's cold-war-era propaganda speakers along the demilitarized zone and demanding an apology. But the speakers have yet to be turned on after North Korea threatened to shoot at them, and Lee dropped the apology demand as a precondition for talks.
source: http://www.statesman.com
Lee was widely blamed in South Korea for having provoked the Cheonan episode by ending unconditional aid to North Korea at the start of his presidency.
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