From the Blog The Marmot's Hole
We’ll bomb N. Korea if they provoke us again: next defense chief
by Robert Koehler on December 6, 2010
South Korean defense minister-designate told a parliamentary confirmation hearing Friday that if North Korea launches another provocation, the South would counterattack using aircraft:
South Korea’s next defense chief threatened Friday that jets would bomb the North if it stages another attack like last week’s deadly shelling as he outlined a tough new military policy toward the rival neighbor.
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Lee’s nominee, Kim Kwan-jin, told a parliamentary confirmation hearing that further North Korean aggression will result in airstrikes. He said South Korea will use all its combat capabilities to retaliate.
“In case the enemy attacks our territory and people again, we will thoroughly retaliate to ensure that the enemy cannot provoke again,” Kim said. The hearing is a formality as South Korea’s National Assembly does not have the power to reject Lee’s appointment.
Like the part about air strikes, don’t like the part about “thoroughly retaliating to ensure that the enemy cannot provoke again,” as you’d need to have boots on the ground in Pyongyang to do that.
Anyway, Kim’s comments made North Korea slightly upset:
The North’s official Korean Central News Agency issued a statement yesterday accusing the South of staging a series of “frantic provocations” including the Defence Minister’s remarks.
“The frantic provocations … are rapidly driving the situation on the Korean peninsula to an uncontrollable extreme phase,” the official Korean Central News Agency said in a dispatch from Pyongyang.
An uncontrollable, extreme phase! Boy, that doesn’t sound good.
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