On air: Is South Korea making matters worse?
| 09:33 UK time, Monday, 20 December 2010
Now there is the sound of warfare on that disputed island again - this time the weapons being fired by troops from the South, taking part in live-fire exercises there.
The government in the South has been under huge pressure domestically to respond to the attack from the North last month, and this exercise has been seen in that context - the US envoy to the UN, Susan Rice, saying the drills were "fully consistent with South Korea's legal right to self defence".
But is the South as much to blame for the tensions - and ultimately the threat of war - as the North?
The North, naturally, thinks so. Pyongyang had said it would retaliate if the exercise went ahead, and would deal an "unpredictable self-defensive blow" at the South Koreans.
In a the DPRK Central News agency said:
The US and the South Korean warmongers are escalating confrontation and tension through ceaseless moves to ignite a war, seriously disturbing peace and security on the Korean Peninsula.
The drill has split the UN, with China and Russia asking Seoul to halt the exercise. And it has split world opinion too.
Andy emailed the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ from the UK:
Looks like war will happen here sooner or later, thanks to the US who appear to be advising south Korea on how to show off and their millitary hardware and provoke the North Koreans further.
Indeed, the action has not been :
"Honestly I don't want our military to go ahead with the drill. It seems as if our government is watching the fire on the other side of the river."
However, plenty of others are backing the view that the South has every right to defend itself.
Louise, who lives in Seoul but is a British citizen, emailed us:
I cannot see how this is a provocation if they are firing towards the South West. Meanwhile the South Korean government should have issued general procedures to civilians in the event of an attack, knowing that this action would ratchet up tensions even further. Perhaps they do not want to cause a mass panic.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak has called for unity amongst all the country's people against the North, saying "the highest-level of national security comes from unity among the people." But will he get that with action as divisive as this?
