What South Koreans think of their Northern counterparts

A woman walks past a TV screen showing a file footage of a North Korean missile launch at a railway station in Seoul on April 28, 2016. North Korea on April 28 tried and failed in what appeared to be its second attempt in two weeks to test a powerful, new medium-range ballistic missile, South Korea's defence ministry said. AFP PHOTO | JUNG YEON-JE

What you need to know:

  • The South claims that between 1954 and 1992, 3,693 armed North Korean agents have infiltrated into South Korea. Nearly a quarter of the incidents happened between 1967 and 1968.
  • South Korea and the United States, as well as experts, believe the North is working to develop a submarine-launched ballistic missile system and an intercontinental ballistic missile putting the mainland United States within range.

South Koreans never tire to tell everyone about what they perceive as the danger posed by North Korea.

From Cabinet ministers, Governors, Mayors, journalists and even ordinary people in the streets, South Koreans never miss the opportunity to brief foreigners on what they see as the ever present threat from the North.

South Korea is justified to be wary of anything appearing to suggest a military confrontation. The country has been invaded and occupied by Japan and invaded several times by North Korea.

Officially, the two Koreas are still at war since the July 27, 1953 Korean Armistice Agreement ended large scale military actions of the Korean War.

The South claims that between 1954 and 1992, 3,693 armed North Korean agents have infiltrated into South Korea. Nearly a quarter of the incidents happened between 1967 and 1968.

Four tunnels which South Korea claims were built by the North for use in a surprise attack on the South have been discovered, and many more are still being sought.

To date, the UN maintains a memorial cemetery in the South to honour military personnel from the 16 nations which provided combat support and the five which provided medical support during the Korean war.

MILITARY ATTACKS

The South claims that the North has violated the armistice 221 times, including 26 military attacks.

The truce between the two Koreas is maintained though a UN declaration which declared their border a Dimilitarized Military Zone (DMZ). Peace is maintained by the presence of US military and the UN in the area.

South Koreans describe their peninsula as the world’s only remaining divided country, a claim that is heavily contested by the Irish and Cypriots, who point to the fact that their societies are also separated involuntarily.

Pyongyang tested a fourth nuclear weapon in January this year, and launched another long-range missile in February.

Just last week while opening a session of the North’s governing Workers Party top decision making body, North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un boasted about his country’s development of the nuclear bomb.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (centre) inspects a test-fire of the new-type large-caliber multiple launch rocket system at an undisclosed location on March 4,2016. PHOTO | AFP

South Korea and the United States, as well as experts, believe the North is working to develop a submarine-launched ballistic missile system and an intercontinental ballistic missile putting the mainland United States within range.

But even as they prepare for the possibility of war, South Koreans have built an enviable economy, considered the 15th largest in the world.

They have built bomb shelters in anticipation of time when citizens might be required to shelter en masse from a possible nuclear or other unconventional weapon fired from the North.

In peacetime, the shelters are used as shopping centres, very much in the same way Kenyans have converted prime real estate in the Central Business District into small kiosks popularly referred to as in Kenya as “exhibitions”.

PRESSING SECURITY ISSUE

The South Korean Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dr Lim Sungman, recently told a team of 80 journalists from across the world during the Journalist Forum for World Peace, in Seoul, South Korea, that despite international pressure, Pryongyang has continued to threaten a pre-emptive nuclear strike on the South.

He described the North Korean nuclear issue as “the most pressing security issue the world faces.”

North Korea announced it was pulling out of the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty in 1993. Since then, Dr Lim says there have been “breakthroughs and breakdowns”, in resolving the issue triggered by the North.

“The first breakthrough was made when the United States and North Korea signed the Agreed Framework in 1994 that obliged Pyongyang to freeze and eventually dismantle its nuclear program in exchange for two light-water reactors. Its implementation, however, came to a halt in 2002 after North Korea’s acknowledgement of its uranium enrichment program,” said Dr Lim.

He gives as another breakthrough the 2005 six parties agreement, which provided a step-by-step roadmap leading to the verifiable resolution of the North Korean nuclear issue on a reciprocal basis.

South Korea's President Park Geun-Hye waves after her inauguration ceremony at parliament in Seoul on February 25, 2013. Park Geun-Hye became South Korea's first female president vowing zero tolerance with North Korean provocation and demanding Pyongyang "abandon its nuclear ambitions" immediately. AFP PHOTO

MISSILE LAUNCH

This has stalled since December 2008 following disagreements over how to verify North Korea’s declaration of its nuclear programs.

Since then, North Korea has conducted long-range missile launch in April 2009, its second nuclear test in May 2009, the attack on the South Korean Navy Ship Cheonan in March 2010, and the shelling of Yeonpyeong island in November 2010, said Dr Lim.

He added: “North Korea is now the only country in the world which has conducted nuclear tests in the 21st century and officially declared itself a nuclear weapon state in its constitution.”

Dr Lim said: “Being an optimist as well as a realist, I do hope and believe that we can ultimately bring North Korea to the right side of history. My firm belief comes from the fact that the international community, including China and Russia, has never been more united in the determination to counter North Korea’s nuclear and missile threat. Now is the time to create an environment in which North Korea cannot survive without changing its calculation. In short, it is the world versus North Korea.”