In der Autobiografie „Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary of War" („Pflicht: Erinnerungen eines Kriegsministers“) schreibt Gates, von 2006 bis 2011 US-verteidigungsminister, dass der nordkoreanische Beschuss der südkoreanischen Insel Yeonpyeong im Jahr 2010 „eine gefährliche Krise“ in Seoul ausgelöst habe.
Die südkoreanische Regierung um den damaligen Präsidenten Lee Myung-bak wollte mit einem harten und „nach unserer Einschätzung nicht angemessen aggressiven“ Gegenschlag unter Einsatz der Luftwaffe und der Artillerie antworten, zitiert die Agentur AFP aus Gates’ Erinnerungen. „Wir waren besorgt, dass die Spannungen weiter eskalieren.“ Nach dem Angriff Nordkoreas hätten US-Präsident Barack Obama, die damalige Außenministerin Hillary Clinton und er selbst tagelang auf Kollegen in Südkorea eingeredet, um das Land von einem massiven Militärschlag abzuhalten. „Schließlich antwortete Südkorea mit einem Artillerieschlag gegen jene nordkoreanischen Batterien, die den Konflikt ausgelöst hatten.“
Die südkoreanische Regierung hat auf Anfrage der Agentur AFP jede Stellungnahme zu den Erinnerungen des amerikanischen Ex-Verteidigungsministers verweigert.
- Nordkorea hatte am 23. November 2010 die südkoreanische Insel Yeonpyeong im Gelben Meer angegriffen. Südkorea erwiderte das Feuer. Bei dem Beschuss der Insel, die nahe der umstrittenen Seegrenze im Gelben Meer liegt, waren vier Südkoreaner getötet und 17 weitere verletzt worden.
- Zwischen Nord- und Südkorea gibt es seit dem Krieg von 1952/53 keinen Friedensvertrag.
Der Krieg wurde mit einem Waffenstillstandsabkommen beendet. Die USA, deren Armee auf der Seite Südkoreas gekämpft hatte, unterhalten im Süden der Korea-Halbinsel immer noch 28.000 Soldaten. Das kommunistische Nordkorea erkennt die von den Vereinten Nationen zum Ende des Koreakriegs 1953 einseitig gezogene Seegrenze nicht an.
http://de.ria.ru/politics/20140115/267647534.html
15/1/14
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North Korea issues warning over US-led military exercises....
ReplyDeleteStatement that manoeuvres with South Korea are a provocation has become an annual fixture in cross-border tension.
North Korea has demanded that South Korea and the US halt annual military drills due in February and March, saying they amount to a direct provocation, in a statement that foreshadows a rerun of a sharp escalation in tension last year.
In 2013 North Korea said it would retaliate against any hostile moves by striking at the United States, Japan and South Korea, triggering a military build-up on the Korean peninsula and months of fiery rhetoric.
The reclusive North has regularly denouncedas a prelude to invasion the annual drills such as "Key Resolve" and "Ulchi-Freedom-Guardian" staged by South Korea and the United States.
"We sternly warn the US and the South Korean authorities to stop the dangerous military exercises which may push the situation on the peninsula and the north-south ties to a catastrophe," the North's KCNA state news quoted a body in charge of efforts to promote Korean unification as saying.
Similar bellicose rhetoric from the North set South Korea, the United States and Japan on edge a year ago. As a result Washington flew stealth bomber missions over South Korea and strengthened its military presence in the South, where nearly 30,000 US troops are based........................http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/16/north-korea-issues-warning-over-us-led-military-exercises
16/1/14
La Corée du Nord s'agite avant des manoeuvres entre la Corée du Sud et les Etats-Unis...
DeleteLa Corée du Nord a appelé vendredi la Corée du Sud à la "réconciliation" tout en exigeant la fin des exercices militaires avec les Etats-Unis, une condition inacceptable annonçant une possible provocation, selon les experts.
Dans une lettre ouverte envoyée sur ordre de son numéro un Kim Jong-Un pour promouvoir "la réconciliation et l'unité", la Corée du Nord a souhaité l'arrêt de toutes les hostilités avec Séoul.
"Ce qui est important pour (...) améliorer les relations entre le Nord et le Sud c'est de prendre une décision courageuse afin d'arrêter toutes les actions militaires hostiles", a indiqué la lettre émanant de la Commission Nationale de Défense (NDC), la principale institution militaire de Corée du Nord.
La semaine passée, la NDC a fait une série de propositions appelant la Corée du sud à annuler ses manoeuvres militaires conjointes avec les États-Unis, prévues en février, et à mettre un terme à la surenchère d'insultes entre les deux pays.
Séoul a rejeté ces offres les taxant de "fallacieux" exercice de propagande, et averti que Pyongyang pourrait au contraire préparer le terrain à une nouvelle provocation visant à déclencher une confrontation entre les deux Corée.
"Il est regrettable que les autorités sud-coréennes campent sur une attitude incorrecte et une position négative, a réagi la NDC dans la lettre ouverte.
Le Sud "ne devrait pas mettre en doute (notre proposition) sans réfléchir, mal interpréter et rejeter précipitamment notre sérieuse et sincère proposition", a-t-elle ajouté.
Pyongyang ne demande pas à ce que la Corée du Sud mette un terme à ses manoeuvres ordinaires mais lui demande de "stopper ses exercices en vue d'une guerre avec l'appui de forces extérieures", selon ce courrier.
La semaine dernière, les Nord-Coréens avaient annoncé "un holocauste défiant l'imagination" si les exercices avaient bien lieu.
"Les motivations cachées de l'ennemi"
Le ministère sud-coréen de l'Unification, responsable des relations intercoréennes, a fait savoir qu'il réagirait vendredi dans la journée. Le ministère de la Défense a de son côté mis en garde contre les "motivations cachées de l'ennemi"...............http://www.rtl.be/info/monde/international/1064171/la-coree-du-nord-s-agite-avant-des-manoeuvres-entre-la-coree-du-sud-et-les-etats-unis
24/1/14
North Korea warns U.S., South Korea military drills could spark disaster...
Delete(Reuters) - North Korea took its demand for the United States and South Korea to halt joint military drills to the United Nations, holding a rare news conference on Friday to warn that the exercises could get "out of control and plunge into unimaginable disaster."
North Korea's U.N. Ambassador Sin Son Ho said that the international community should no longer allow the United States and South Korea to carry out the military drills on the Korean peninsula, which are scheduled for February and March.
"If the 'coordination' and 'cooperation' with the U.S. are so precious and valuable, they had better hold the exercises in the secluded area or in the U.S. far away from the territorial land, sea and air of the Korean peninsula," Sin said.
North Korea has traditionally called for the joint exercises to be called off, seeing them as a prelude to invasion. Sin repeated that demand at the United Nations on Friday, first made by Pyongyang last week, for the drills to be canceled.
South Korea on January 17 rejected the North's call to halt military drills with the United States, saying that as a democracy, it does not launch preemptive strikes.
The annual drills have been conducted for decades without a major incident. The two allies have stressed that they are purely defensive in nature and aimed at testing readiness against North Korean aggression.
Tensions soared early last year as Pyongyang reacted angrily to tightened U.N. sanctions imposed in response to its most recent nuclear test. North Korea said it would retaliate against any hostile moves by striking at the United States, Japan and South Korea, triggering months of fiery rhetoric.
"Our nuclear force serves as a means for deterring the U.S. from posing a nuclear threat," Sin said. "We courteously propose the South side not to resort to reckless acts of bringing dangerous nuclear strike means of the U.S. to South Korea and to areas around it."
"We remind once again that even minor and accidental conflict can immediately lead to an all-out war," he said. "We never want to see things fall out of control and plunge into unimaginable disaster."
This year the North mixed its demand for a halt to the drills with a message of national reconciliation, but the South has already rejected it as "insincere."......http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/24/us-korea-north-usa-un-idUSBREA0N1HF20140124?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews
24/1/14
North and South Korea trade fire across border....
ReplyDeleteSouth Korean military said on Monday it had responded to shells landing in its waters from a North live-fire drill, with both sides trading fire across their disputed maritime border.
"Some of the shells fired by North Korea dropped in our area and our side responded with fire," a spokesman for the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff told Agence France-Presse.
There was no indication that either side was firing at any particular target.
Officials said residents of the South-Korea-controlled Baengnyeong island had been taken to shelters as a precaution. The island is close to the maritime boundary.........http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/asia/2014/03/31/North-and-South-Korea-trade-fire-across-border.html
31/3/14
Russia says excessive military activities in Northeast Asia unacceptable...
ReplyDeleteThe Russian Foreign Ministry said excessive military activities in Northeast Asia were unacceptable.
“We are concerned about the continuing escalation of tensions on the Korean Peninsula, which resulted in the exchange of artillery fire between the DPRK (North Korea) and the Republic of Korea (South Korea) in the area of the so-called Northern Limit Line in the Yellow Sea,” the ministry said.
“One cannot but see that periodic deterioration of the situation in the region coincides in time with the annual large-scale military exercises of the United States and the Republic of Korea,” the ministry said. “We have repeatedly noted the inadmissibility of excessive military activities in Northeast Asia, especially such provocative elements as bombing practices with the use of strategic bombers and landing operations to seize certain ‘administrative centres’ of foreign states,” the ministry said.
http://en.itar-tass.com/world/725968?utm_medium=rss20
31/3/14