South Korea says it is speeding up arms buildup to counter the North

[chahlley]

                                                   (World Today Saturday 30 September 2017)

  S Korea says it is speeding up arms buildup to counter the North

South Korean President Moon Jae-in (R) and Defence Minister Song Young-moo review the troops during a commemoration ceremony marking South Korea's Armed Forces Day, which will fall on October 1, at the Second Fleet Command of Navy in Pyeongtaek on September 28, 2017. Photo: Reuters

Updated 12:09 AM, September 30, 2017

SEOUL— The president of South Korea has vowed to accelerate efforts to strengthen its pre-emptive strike, missile defence and retaliatory capabilities against North Korea, and he renewed his call for the armed forces to become more independent from the United States.

In a speech to mark South Korea’s Armed Forces Day on Thursday (Sept 28), Mr Moon Jae-in, said he would push for the South to move more quickly to retake wartime operational control of its military from its US ally.

Since the Korean War in the early 1950s, the terms of the countries’ alliance have called for an American general to command the South’s 650,000-member military should war break out.

Mr Moon and other liberals have campaigned for South Korea to play a greater role in the alliance, and they have long called for the country to resume responsibility for wartime command as soon as it can feasibly do so. But the idea has gotten more public support as remarks by President Donald Trump have led many South Koreans to doubt his commitment to defend their country.

Mr Moon said Thursday that a more self-reliant military could make itself stronger and more feared by North Korea. But he also said the South should strengthen its alliance with Washington. An aide to Mr Moon said this week that the allies were working on ways to move strategic American military assets into the region more frequently, to help deter North Korea.

“The top priority is to secure abilities to counter the North Korean nuclear and missile threats,” Mr Moon said.

Since Mr Moon took office in May, North Korea has conducted at least nine missile tests. On September 3, the North conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear test. And the North’s leader, Kim Jong-un, has been trading increasingly bellicose threats with Mr Trump.

Mr Moon has been more aggressive than his conservative predecessors about building up the South Korean military. After he met with Mr Trump in New York during the United Nations General Assembly last week, Washington agreed to sell more sophisticated weapons to South Korea.

During that meeting, the US and South Korea also agreed to expand the deployment of American strategic military assets to South Korea on a rotating basis, possibly by the end of the year, Mr Moon’s national security adviser, Chung Eui-yong, told South Korean political leaders on Wednesday.

Mr Chung did not identify those assets, but in recent years the US has often sent long-range strategic bombers and nuclear-powered submarines to South Korea for military drills.

In his speech on Thursday, the Korean leader said his government was accelerating work on three military programs: a pre-emptive strike system known as Kill Chain that would target North Korean missile sites; an air and missile defence system; and a program devised to launch devastating strikes against North Korea’s military and political leadership should it start a war.

He said the South Korean military should become strong enough to retake its wartime control from the Americans and to “play a leading role in establishing a stronger and more stable combined defence system” together with the US.

South Korea handed operational control of its military to an American general in 1950, when the US rushed troops to the Korean Peninsula to fight the Korean War.

The war ended in a cease-fire, not a peace treaty, and tens of thousands of American soldiers have been based in the South ever since. The South regained peacetime control of its military in 1994, but the US would still command combined American-South Korean forces in the event of war.

Washington agreed in 2007 to return wartime command to Seoul by 2012. But the date was pushed back to 2015, then to the mid-2020s, as North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs advanced and doubt surfaced over whether the South’s military could build capabilities quickly enough to take the lead in its defence.

Mr Moon’s speech came against the backdrop of North Korea’s increased economic and political isolation over its nuclear militarisation, particularly by China, its Korean War ally and longtime benefactor, which once called their relationship “as close as lips and teeth.”

In a new sign of China’s exasperation with Mr Kim, the Ministry of Commerce on Thursday published a formal notification of intent to close Chinese-North Korean joint venture businesses, in accordance with a provision of the latest UN Security Council resolution penalising North Korea, which was unanimously adopted on September 11.

With some notable exceptions, including nonprofit enterprises and Chinese-North Korean hydropower projects, the provision specifies that foreign joint ventures with North Korea must be closed within 120 days of the resolution’s adoption, which places the deadline in early January.

Political analysts said it was premature to judge the effect of the Chinese announcement, partly because the true extent of China’s joint ventures with North Korea is vague. It is also unclear how seriously China intends to enforce the provision.

Still, the announcement appeared to threaten the most visible joint ventures - about 100 North Korean restaurants in China, staffed by North Koreans, that provide a stream of cash for Mr Kim’s government. North Korea also operates joint venture restaurants in a number of other countries, including Cambodia, Laos and Nepal.

“At a minimum, it is a signal of displeasure to the North Koreans and a nod to the United Nations Security Council,” said Mr Marcus Noland, executive vice president and director of studies at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington. “And check back in 120 days and see what happens.”

Mr Jonathan Pollack, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said if China was serious about enforcement, “I have little doubt that this is going to hurt the North Koreans.”

But he also was cautious about the potential impact.

“The North Koreans are remarkably adept at circumventing sanctions,” he said. “They do a lot of activities in China that I don’t think the Chinese would count as North Korean entities.”

In a further sign of North Korea’s isolation, Malaysia on Thursday barred its citizens from traveling to North Korea.

Relations between Malaysia and North Korea have deteriorated since the assassination of Kim Jong Nam, the estranged half brother of Mr Kim Jong Un, at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in February. Malaysia said North Korean agents had hired two female assassins to kill Kim with a nerve agent, an accusation that North Korea called a slanderous lie.

After the killing, both countries briefly barred each other’s nationals from leaving.

Malaysia is scheduled to face North Korea in an Asian Cup match in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, on October 5, already delayed twice over security concerns. It was not clear if the Malaysian team would be exempted from the new travel ban. THE NEW YORK TIMES