Acting President and Prime Minister Han Duck-soo on Friday said that North Korea’s ongoing illegal arms trade with Russia has allowed the “degenerate” regime to plot new forms of provocations.
“Through illegal arms trade with Russia, (North Korea) has been plotting new forms of provocations by upgrading its weapons system aimed to threaten us,” Han said in a speech marking the 10th West Sea Defense Day.
Friday’s ceremony was held at the national cemetery in Daejeon to honor and remember the 55 sailors and Marines killed while defending the western inter-Korean maritime border.
“We were able to defend the West Sea through the noble sacrifices of our heroes, but even today, North Korea's most degenerate regime on earth continues to threaten peace on the Korean Peninsula and of the world," he added.
Despite international sanctions banning arms trade with Pyongyang, Moscow has been expanding its military ties with the reclusive regime since last year.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday listed North Korea as a partner country with which he is willing to cooperate to settle its war in Ukraine, according to Russian state news agency Tass.
South Korea’s military, in a report released Thursday, said the North is believed to have deployed at least 3,000 additional troops to Russia in the first two months of this year, despite heavy casualties among soldiers already sent to support Moscow in its war against Ukraine. The North is believed to have deployed about 11,000 soldiers to the Russia-Ukraine front in its first round of deployments around October last year. It has been receiving technological aid to its weapons program in exchange, officials and experts have noted.
Han said that South Korea is maintaining a full readiness posture to protect the people against any provocations from the North.
"The young soldiers who inherited the fighting spirit of the West Sea warriors will respond immediately and overwhelmingly to any North Korean provocation based on strong combat capabilities and a firm readiness posture," he said.
He pledged to advance the decades-old South Korea-US alliance and solidarity with the international community to maintain the security posture.
Since the 1970s, North Korea has engaged in military provocations along the Northern Limit Line, the disputed maritime demarcation line between the South and North. Its regime has argued that the NLL was drawn unilaterally by the United Nations Command after the 1950-53 Korean War.
Three naval skirmishes have taken place, in 1999, 2002 and 2009. The 2002 clash, referred to as the second Yeonpyeong Battle, left six South Korean sailors dead and 19 wounded.
Additionally, the sinking of the South's Cheonan corvette in March 2010 left 46 sailors dead, after a North Korean submarine torpedoed the warship near the NLL. Pyongyang, however, has denied responsibility.
Later that year, the North also bombed the nearby island Yeonpyeongdo, killing two Marines and two civilians.
mkjung@heraldcorp.com
