January 21, 2010
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea would launch a pre-emptive conventional strike against the North if there were clear indications of an impending nuclear attack, the South Korean defense minister said Wednesday in Seoul, even as both countries were holding talks about improvements at their jointly operated industrial park.
The comment by the defense minister, Kim Tae-young, reconfirmed the South Korean military’s stance on the possibility of a nuclear strike by the North, ministry officials said.
But it also marked another exchange of tough talk between two militaries.
Last Friday, North Korea’s National Defense Commission threatened a “holy war to blow away” the South, denouncing Seoul over unconfirmed news reports that the South has recently drawn up contingency plans for a potential collapse of the government in Pyongyang.
“A nuclear attack from the North would cause too much damage for us to react,” Mr. Kim said, speaking at a security seminar on Wednesday. “We must detect signs, and if there is a clear sign of attack, we must immediately strike. Unless it’s a case where we would sustain an attack but still could counterattack, we must strike first.”
Mr. Kim made a similar comment in 2008 when he was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. North Korea responded at the time with threats of war, vowing to reduce the South to “ashes.” The Koreas are still technically at war because the 1950-3 Korean War ended with a truce and not a formal peace treaty.
Even without nuclear weapons, North Korea’s military remains a serious threat to the South. Seoul, the capital of South Korea and its largest city, is within range of North Korean rockets and artillery deployed along the border, just 30 miles away.
Within minutes of the start of a war, North Korean artillery would roll out of underground bunkers and rain shells on Seoul, wiping out much of the capital, according to South Korean officials and military analysts.
South Korea says it has no nuclear weapons on its territory, although both Seoul and Washington have emphasized that the United States keeps the South under its nuclear umbrella.
There was no immediate comment from the American military or the United States Embassy in Seoul about Mr. Kim’s comments. United States military officials and diplomats usually decline to comment on any potential military conflict with the North, except to say that the American and South Korean militaries remain at the ready.
Meanwhile, officials from both Koreas held a second day of talks on the future of their joint industrial complex at Kaesong, a North Korean border town north of Seoul. The officials were following up on fact-finding trips they made together to industrial parks in China and Vietnam in December.
During the talks, South Korea stressed the need for more efficient border crossings and customs clearance for South Koreans who travel to and from Kaesong. The meetings were “serious and practical,” said Chun Hae-sung, a spokesman for the South’s Unification Ministry.
About 110 South Korean factories employ 42,000 North Korean workers at Kaesong in a pilot project to combine South Korean capital with North Korean labor. But the future of the venture has been clouded by political tensions between the two sides.
The latest inter-Korean talks, which began Tuesday at Kaesong, came amid mixed signals from North Korea. Last weekend, the North threatened to break off all dialogue with Seoul and its state-run media showed the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, observing a military exercise . This came only days after the North proposed talks with the South on developing business, tourism and aid.
“North Korea is mixing dialogue with threats,” said Mr. Kim, the South Korean defense chief. “We must take a strong stance while keeping the window open for dialogue.”
Also on Wednesday, Wi Sung-lac, South Korea’s top negotiator on security issues on the Korean peninsula, left for the United States to meet with Stephen W. Bosworth, the American special envoy on North Korea. They were to discuss how to bring the North back to six-party talks on ending its nuclear weapons programs.
North Korea insists on the lifting of sanctions and the beginning of bilateral talks with the United States on a peace treaty before it decides to return to the six-party talks.
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