Posted on 07/01/2002 7:32:48 AM PDT by Stand Watch Listen
North Korea's sinking of a South Korean warship near the sea border in the West Sea has raised questions about the rules of engagement set and enforced by the United Nations Command (UNC).When South Korea's warships are dispatched to repel invading North Korean vessels, they should first broadcast warnings with loudspeakers and fire warning shots before opening fire, according to the rules.
But the South's warships have to take the risk of coming within at least 900 meters of the North Korean ships to broadcast warnings. From that distance, warships come within a 90 percent chance of being an easy target of gunfire.
The engagement rules, albeit highly risky, are designed to prevent an escalation of a limited clash into all-out war on the Korean peninsula. Given the erratic nature of North Korean military, however, there is the possibility that the Navy will always fall victim to a preemptive attack, analysts say.
To rectify the situation, Defense Minister Kim Dong-shin told the National Assembly that his ministry would make an overhaul of the rules of engagement along with the UNC to prepare for provocative acts by North Korea near the sea or land border.
In an emergency meeting of the National Defense Committee, he said, ``Our side followed the rules of engagement, but the North Korean warships made a calculated surprise attack.''
Presidential Secretary for Foreign Affairs Yim Sung-joon, who is currently in Japan with President Kim Dae-jung, backed Minister Kim, saying, ``If necessary, the rules of engagement should be changed to prevent the recurrence of a similar incidents.''
At Kim's instruction, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) is studying ways of issuing a warning to approaching North Korean vessels at a safe distance without depending upon the use of loudspeakers.
``It will take some time to revise the rules of engagement because we have to first consult with the UNC,'' a JCS official said.
What kind of ships are they building over there. A frigate should have been able to have held its own against two gunboats.
The South Korean economy, along with Seoul, would be wrecked, but North Korea doesn't have a chance of doing anything other than destroying a lot of property and lives before it runs out of fuel, food, and vintage Soviet arms.
After that, Korean family reunifications would increase exponentially.
N. Korea does have many fast gun and missile boats, extensive shore artilleries, silk-worm anti-ship missiles from the shore(covers area up to outer port area of Inchon) and SA5 surface-to-air missiles batteries which are said to have 250km range. These information is all from local papers. But they should have sunk those boats south of NLL. Fear of escalation go both ways. N. Korea always count on the belief that we will blink all the time.
We should draw up the potential engagement plan in case this kind of incident occur again. This should include decimating all shore installations with boats, missiles, and dug-in artilleries. S. Korea alone have enough air/naval-assets to do this. We have to give them fair warning that the repeat of this incident will result in the total distruction of all naval assets in Hwang-Hae-Do shore area.
Finally, we should not make this derail talks on their WMD and their proliferation. This must be the main aim of this attack. To distract us from talking the important matters, and make this provocation a main theme. We should do both. Draw up extensive and decisive response to the repeat of this incident and pound them about their WMDs.
NK can create a lot of property damage, as you said ,using missiles and fortified artilleries. But I doubt that they can get into Seoul w/o using WMD's. Theses days Seoul is ringed with crowded commuter towns in all directions, along all roads, large or small. Any incoming large army from North has to travel through this maze. Many buildings here are high-rise apartments. Defenders can take their places in these buildings and mow down invaders with machine guns and anti-tank missiles. Even if NK managed to airlift some troops to the south of Seoul and move up to Seoul, the problem remains. The southern area also have crowded towns, Bundang,Sung-Nam,Suwon,Yong-In, all buidings serving as maze of fortified bunkers with great view on the roads. It will be the grave to invading army.
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