Poking the hornets' nest
It goes without saying that South Korea has to deal resolutely with any unprovoked threat to its security from North Korea. It has every right to retaliate against a North Korean attack many times more, as it promises. Failure to do so would make the Sout
But North Korea’s latest threat to launch an artillery strike against the Imjin Pavillion in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, was a different situation. It came in response to what it apparently perceived to be a serious provocation from the South.
Last Friday, Pyongyang said it would target the pavilion, one of South Korea’s northernmost tourist attractions, for an artillery strike if South Korean conservatives, including defectors from the North, were allowed to send anticommunist leaflets over the border, as they have often done before.
In what they regard as promotion of human rights, the activists have sent anticommunist leaflets in balloons, often together with one-dollar bills and daily necessities, aiming at turning North Korean residents against their oppressive regime. But the cornered mouse, as the maxim goes, will sometimes attack the cat.
On Friday, North Korea threatened to launch a “merciless military strike” against the South Korean target if the leaflets were dropped on Monday as planned. As if to demonstrate its resolve to make good on its threat, the North reportedly manoeuvred artillery in place for an attack.
A deadly exchange of fire was averted when the South Korean military and police blocked the activists from entering the pavilion. In defiance, however, they denounced the Seoul government for surrendering to Pyongyang’s threat and vowed to continue to send leaflets to the North.
The activists, and anyone else for that matter, have every right to pursue what they regard as a worthwhile mission insofar as it does not pose any danger to others.
But they are urged to exercise self-restraint and abstain from any more risky provocations. The South Korean government will have to step in, if they refuse to toe the line.
With Seoul’s metropolitan area placed within the range of the North Korean artillery, they should be reminded that their ill-conceived activities could expose a population of more than 10 million people to an attack by the North.
