Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are ratcheting upwards. Korea Herald reported today that South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol has ordered the military to “punish and retaliate against any North Korean provocations in no uncertain terms” without fear of their nuclear weapons. Speaking at a meeting with aides, Yoon said that immediate retaliation is the “most powerful means to deter provocations,” according to Kim Eun-hye, senior presidential Secretary for Press Affairs, at a televised press briefing. “We must not fear or hesitate just because the country has nuclear weapons.”
This followed the intrusion of five North Korean drones into South Korean airspace on Dec. 26. Yoon’s comments this morning followed the disclosure that the South Korean military already had taken tit-for-tat action in response to the drones. “When the first one crossed the border, the President ordered us to immediately take corresponding measures against North Korea, saying that we also have unmanned aerial vehicles,” a senior presidential official—who wished to remain anonymous—told a closed-door briefing. “He ordered us to dispatch two or three unmanned aerial vehicles in response to the one from North Korea.”
South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup also admitted that Yoon ordered him to dispatch the aerial vehicles to North Korea while being “prepared for entering war” during an emergency parliamentary briefing this afternoon. “But I’d like to clarify that it does not mean that we have the intention to wage war. Such expression rather shows our goal to deter provocations with such (strong) determination,” Lee told lawmakers. “If we hesitate about taking countermeasures with concern about entering war, we can never break [North Korea’s] will to make provocations.”
Meanwhile, in Pyongyang, Kim Jong Un has been presiding over a three-day party plenary meeting which discussed, among other things, goals for strengthening self-defense for next year. During the meeting held the previous day, Kim delivered a report analyzing the “new challengeable situation” created on the Korean Peninsula and the current international political situation, according to Seoul’s Korea Herald, citing Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency. He presented principles and policy direction for the ruling Workers’ Party and for defending the country’s sovereignty and national interests, it added. Kim also set forth “new key goals for bolstering up the self-reliant defense capability to be pushed ahead with in 2023 under the multilaterally changing situation,” the KCNA said in an English-language report. It did not provide details on what the goals were.
