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1、November 25, 2010With Limited Options, South Korea Shifts Military RulesBy and MARK McDONALDSEOUL, South Korea Responding to growing public criticism after a deadly North Korean attack, President accepted the resignation of his defense minister on Thursday and announced changes in the militarys rule
2、s of engagement to make it easier for to strike back with greater force, especially if civilians are threatened. The government also announced plans to increase the number of troops and heavy weapons on Yeonpyeong Island, where two marines and two civilians died Tuesday in an artillery fusillade fro
3、m the North. On Friday, President Lee appointed a security adviser, Lee Hee-won, as the new defense minister. But Mr. Lee, who came to office two years ago vowing to get tough with the North, has little maneuvering room in formulating a response. While the attack appears to have pushed anti-North Ko
4、rean sentiment here to its highest level in years, there is little public support for taking military action against the North that might lead to an escalation of hostilities. “has nothing to lose, while we have everything to lose,” said Kang Won-taek, a professor of politics at Seoul National Unive
5、rsity. “Lee Myung-bak has no choice but to soften his tone to keep this country peaceful. It is not an appealing choice, but it is the only realistic choice.” The Souths powerful neighbor is also counseling restraint. The Chinese prime minister, , said Thursday that Beijing opposed any provocative m
6、ilitary behavior by either side on the Korean Peninsula, Xinhua, the state news agency, reported. On Thursday, while North Korea warned through its official news agency of further military retaliation if provoked by South Korea, Mr. Lee said only, “We should not drop our guard in preparation for the
7、 possibility of another provocation by North Korea,” according to his chief spokesman, Hong Sang-pyo. “A provocation like this can recur any time.” The changes in the rules of engagement were similarly restrained. South Korean defenses on five coastal islands in the Yellow Sea had been set up primar
8、ily to guard against possible amphibious landings by North Korean troops. Critics said Thursday that the military had not anticipated the possibility of an attack by North Korean artillery batteries, which are reportedly in caves along the Norths coastline. “Now, an artillery battle has become the n
9、ew threat, so were reassessing the need to strengthen defenses,” Mr. Lee told lawmakers. The new measures he outlined included doubling the number of howitzers and upgrading other weaponry. The new rules of engagement will be based on whether military or civilian sites are the targets, said Mr. Hong
10、, the presidential spokesman, adding that the move was made to “change the paradigm of responding to North Koreas provocations.” Previously, South Korean forces were allowed to respond only in kind if the North fired artillery, the South could answer only with artillery to contain any dispute. Now,
11、officials said, the military would be allowed to use greater force. Mr. Lees response to this weeks artillery attack is not the first time he has been criticized for sitting on his hands in the face of a deadly provocation by the North. Two years ago, when a South Korean tourist was shot by a sentry
12、 at a North Korean mountain resort, his governments response amounted to a slap on the wrist: suspending tours to the resort and banning South Korean civic groups from visiting the North. But the clearest case was Mr. Lees response in March to the sinking of a South Korean warship, the. Mr. Lee at f
13、irst seemed to stall by waiting for the results of an international investigation, which took two months to conclude that the ship had been sunk by a North Korean torpedo. When he responded, it was with relatively mild measures like reducing the Souths already minuscule trade with the North, resumin
14、g the Souths cold-war-era propaganda speakers along the demilitarized zone and demanding an apology. But the speakers have yet to be turned on after North Korea threatened to shoot at them, and Mr. Lee dropped the apology demand as a condition for talks. Mr. Lee was widely blamed in South Korea for
15、having provoked the Cheonan episode by ending unconditional aid to the North at the start of his presidency. “Before, the public saw him as too hard, and now they see him as too soft,” said Yoo Ho-yeol, a professor of North Korean studies at Korea University in Seoul. Despite public pressure to do m
16、ore, Mr. Lee does not have many options for less lethal forms of pressure on the North, diplomatic or economic. North Korea has weathered years of economic sanctions and diplomatic isolation. In fact, the tough economic conditions appear only to give the North motivation to continue its brinkmanship, to extract aid as it faces a winter of food and fuel shortages. Some analysts say the North is also using the provocations to burnish
