Since the inter-Korean artillery war, South Korea first held a joint military exercise with the United States in this sensitive sea area, and then announced that it would hold live-fire artillery exercises here. Although the South Korean side claimed that it would not point the muzzle at the north, the North Korean side regarded this as a provocative act and falsely claimed that "due to South Korea's reckless war policy", another war would break out on the Korean peninsula sooner or later and lead to a nuclear war, and the war would not be confined to the Korean peninsula.
The article said that as a sovereign country, South Korea certainly has the right to hold military exercises anywhere in the country. The problem is that this is disputed waters between Korea and North Korea. Pyongyang authorities declared the waters as North Korean territory in 1999, while Seoul insisted that it was South Korean territory. No matter who is right or wrong, it is obvious that any military action held in such sensitive waters may lead to greater conflicts.
The reason why South Korea insists on holding the exercise is believed to have two major factors: on the one hand, it is necessary to show North Korea that South Korea has counterattack power; On the other hand, we should be accountable to the people. After the Korean-Korean artillery war, patriotism in South Korea was high. According to South Korea's main newspaper "Central Daily News" 1 February 9th, the competition rate of South Korea's Marine Corps has exceeded 2.3 1 in just one week since it began to recruit in June of 5438+08+00, and the competition rate of the most difficult search corps is as high as 151. This phenomenon shows that the willingness of Korean youth to join the army is unprecedented.
The day before yesterday, the Central Daily also published an editorial entitled "We must make full preparations for shooting training in Yeonpyeong Island", firmly supporting the South Korean military to hold exercises in the surrounding areas of Yeonpyeong Island, and pointed out that "if North Korea provokes again under the pretext of exercises, South Korea should set a strong example of punishment this time", but at the same time pointed out that "no one wants Yeonpyeong Island exercises to turn into war".
The international community is actively trying to mediate and try to control the situation. To this end, the governor of New Mexico, Bill, who is visiting Pyongyang? Richardson suggested to North Korean officials that the DPRK and the ROK set up a military hotline to handle border disputes, and suggested that the United States, the ROK and the DPRK form a joint committee to supervise the disputed waters in the West Sea. At present, it is not clear whether his proposal will be accepted by both the DPRK and the ROK, especially the DPRK, but according to Richardson, although his talks with the DPRK were "very difficult", some progress has been made.