Opinion Editorials, November 2010

The Military Escalation Between the Two Koreas:

How Can it Be Read?

By Ali Al-Hail

Al-Jazeerah, CCUN, December 7, 2010

   The Republic of South Korea, has long, been launching military exercises in PYeonpyeong, an island in South Korea, with highly, strategic significance, adjacent to a disputed sea border between the Republic Of South Korea, and the Republic Of North Korea.  The western maritime border, also known as the Northern Limit Line, between the two Koreas, was presumably, unfairly, drawn by the US in 1953, for South Korea's interests, while ignoring the North's ones.

   Since then, this 'buffer zone' between the two Koreas, has been branding their relations as volatile, and their borders as so sensitive.   The exercises have been systematical, and carried out on regular basis, since 1953, when the war between the two Koreas ended without a peace agreement.
 
 As such, the latest escalation between Soul, and Pyongyang, the second this year, has arguably, occurred as a result of South Korea's continual, accumulative provocations to the North. Many argue, had not been with an aid of the 28,000 strong US troops, which constitute a part of US military base in South Korea, the largest ever in the Pacific Region, the South could've not been capable of provoking the North.

  One presumes, as do many that, the degree of newly, arising hostility between Soul and  Pyongyang, has to do with the US and China, since China is the main staunching ally of North Korea in the Pacific . In the last G20 conference in Soul, President Obama was critical of China's economic measures. Hence, the recent military action, and more noticeably, the coming military exercises between US and South Korea, reportedly, in the same disputed patch between the two Koreas, could be well read within the same economic scenario, by and large. 
 
 
Professor, Dr. Ali Al-Hail, Media Consultant, Professor of Mass Communication, Twice Fulbright Award Winner, Fulbright Visiting Scholar, Vice-President Of Qatar Fulbright Group, CSR Award Judge, Psychosomatics writer, Management Trainer, and Board Member of AUSACE, ASC, IABD, NEBAA, BEA, IMDA and EAJMC American Associations.

He can be contacted on professoralialhail@qatar.net.qa
 
  

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