Corée: Danger de conflit

C'est ce que disent les "experts". La situation n'est plus sous contrôle.

Dec 5, 2010 5:35 AM GMT+0100
North Korea said South Korea is pushing tensions on the peninsula to an “uncontrollable extreme phase” by holding military exercises with the U.S. and staging a live-firing drill by naval artillery tomorrow.

South Korea “is so hell-bent on the moves to escalate the confrontation and start a war that it is recklessly behaving bereft of reason,” the state-run Korea Central News Agency said in a commentary today. North Korea is “maintaining a maximum self-possession and self-control,” it said.

The drills starting tomorrow will include live firing from ships into seas near Daecheong Island, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said last week. North Korea said today shells will land in its territorial waters.

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have increased since North Korea’s Nov. 23 shelling of South Korea’s Yeonpyeong island that killed two soldiers and two civilians. South Korea’s new defense minister, Kim Kwan Jin, two days ago vowed retaliation that would include airstrikes if North Korea made another attack.

“I will mobilize all combat capabilities available to severely punish the enemy,” Kim, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at his confirmation hearing on Dec. 3. “I will surely use planes. This is a matter of self-defense.” KCNA said today that North Korea denounced the minister’s comments.

Areas to Avoid

The South Korean government warned ships to avoid 29 areas around its coast before tomorrow’s drill. One zone lies about 7 miles (11 kilometers) off Daecheong, in waters claimed by North Korea that are about 100 miles (160 kilometers) from the South Korean mainland.

The area lies to the southwest of the island, in the opposite direction to the North Korean coastline, a spokesman for South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said last week.

North Korea fired artillery at the fishing community and military outpost of Yeonpyeong in the first shelling of South Korean soil since the 1950-1953 war. North Korea said it was responding to a military provocation after South Korea fired into waters each country claims as its own.

The incident was “deserved punishment” for South Korea’s shelling, KCNA said today.

North Korea yesterday denounced the U.S., South Korea and Japan for “reckless moves” to create a military alliance that threatens peace in North Asia.

“The situation on the Korean Peninsula is getting tenser as the days go by and the danger of a war is increasing hour by hour,” the KCNA reported, citing a commentary in the Rodong newspaper. ‘The U.S. is giving spurs to an arms buildup and preparations for a war.” [...] Blomberg

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