The NLL in the Yellow Sea has always been a flashpoint that could lead to a wider conflict. The ROK defense minister is clearly letting the North Korean regime know that any provocation they launch could lead to a wider conflict:
Defense Minister Shin Won-sik visits a memorial for 46 sailors killed in the 2010 sinking of the ROKS Cheonan corvette on the 14th anniversary of the incident at Baengnyeong Island in the Yellow Sea on March 26, 2024, in this photo provided by his office.
Defense Minister Shin Won-sik on Tuesday called for defending the western sea border against enemy threats on the anniversary of the 2010 sinking of a South Korean warship by a North Korean torpedo attack.
The ROKS Cheonan corvette sank near the western Northern Limit Line (NLL), a de facto inter-Korean sea border, in March 2010, after a North Korean midget submarine fired a torpedo at it, killing 46 sailors.
“North Korea is claiming the NLL is a ghost line without legal grounds and is continuously trying to nullify it,” Shin said in his phone talks with the commanding officer of a new frigate named after the torpedoed warship.
“Protect the Yellow Sea and the NLL that the comrades before you have defended by giving up their lives.”
In turn, Cdr. Park Yeon-soo, the commanding officer, vowed to avenge the sailors of the Cheonan if the enemy undertakes a provocation. Park served on the previous warship and is a survivor of the 2010 attack.
Shin’s call came after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un last month rejected the NLL as a “ghost” line and called for using force against South Korean vessels violating its waters.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link, but it will be interesting to see if the Kim regime tries to see whether or not the ROK government is bluffing on their hardline rhetoric. Kim Jong-un got away with sinking the Cheonan back in 2010 and may think he could get away with such a provocation today as well.
The 2010 sinking of the Cheonan and other provocations by North Korea in the Yellow Sea have never had a proper response from the ROK. For example after the 2002 West Sea Naval Battle that saw six ROK sailors dead the North Koreans celebrated the aftermath while the ROK did nothing in response. In fact the ROK President did not attend the memorial ceremony and surviving family members were treated poorly in an effort to downplay the provocation. With the new ROK defense chief it looks like any future provocations will have a serious response:
South Korea’s defense chief on Tuesday instructed Navy officials to mercilessly bury North Korean sailors at sea in the event of another North Korean provocation.
Defense Minister Shin Won-sik made the remark as he inspected the new 2,800-ton ROKS Cheonan frigate, which was deployed for operations to the headquarters of the Navy’s Second Fleet in Pyeongtaek, 60 kilometers south of Seoul, on Saturday.
Shin told Navy officials and sailors to “mercilessly bury (the enemy) at sea if the enemy stages yet another provocation” after he paid tribute to 46 fallen sailors at the memorial monument at the headquarters of the Navy’s Second Fleet.
In 2010, North Korea torpedoed the 1,200-ton-class Cheonan corvette near the western Northern Limit Line, the de facto inter-Korean sea border, killing 46 South Korean sailors. A Seoul-led multinational investigation concluded that Pyongyang torpedoed the Cheonan warship, but the North has denied its involvement in the incident.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
Former President Lee Myung-bak has made his first official event one where he paid his respects to the 46 sailors murdered by North Korea during the sinking of the Cheonan:
Former President Lee Myung-bak visited a national cemetery in the central city of Daejeon on Wednesday to pay respects to sailors killed in North Korea’s sinking of a South Korean warship in 2010.
Korea Times
The visit was Lee’s first official activity after he was released from prison on a special pardon by President Yoon Suk Yeol in December. The sinking of the warship Cheonan, which killed 46 sailors, happened when Lee was in office, and he pledged to visit the cemetery every year, even after leaving office.
“I will pray for national prosperity and the security of the Republic of Korea while honoring the sacrificial spirit on the front line of freedom,” Lee wrote in the visitors’ book at the cemetery, about 140 kilometers south of Seoul.
Lee chose the visit to the national cemetery as his first official activity since his pardon to keep his promise to visit the cemetery every year while he is alive, Hong Sang-pyo, Lee’s aide and former presidential secretary for press affairs, said.
You can read more at the link.
It will be interesting to see if this frigate ends up doing the same maritime DMZ duty as its predecessor:
South Korea on Tuesday held a ceremony launching a new frigate named after a warship torpedoed by North Korea in 2010, the Navy and state arms procurement agency said.
The ceremony for the 2,800-ton frigate, Cheonan, took place at the shipyard of Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. in Ulsan, some 410 kilometers southeast of Seoul, as the Navy still has potent memories of the North’s deadly attack.
The 1,200-ton corvette Cheonan sank near the Northern Limit Line, a de facto western inter-Korean sea border, in March 2010, after a North Korean midget submarine fired a torpedo at it, killing 46 sailors.
The unveiling of the Cheonan carried a symbolic meaning for the survivors of the attack and bereaved families who have wished to see the new warship named after the ill-fated corvette and commissioned to fulfill its unfinished mission of safeguarding the maritime border.
Yonhap
However the prior Captain of the Cheonan did not attend the ceremony for this reason:
Striking a sour note, Choi Won-il, the captain of the corvette at the time of the sinking, said he would not attend the event in protest over the state-run communications standards panel’s recent decision not to take issue with social media video clips raising conspiracy theories behind the cause of the sinking.
Choi does have a point because the Moon administration has been busy throwing conservative journalists in jail for so called “fake news”, but will not take action against fake news in regards to the sinking of the Cheonan. This is likely because they don’t want to upset the Kim regime which is behind a lot of the misinformation put out about the sinking of the Cheonan.
You can read more at the link.
