Kim Jong-un, Chairman of the State Affairs Commission, and Kim Yo-jong, Vice Minister of the Workers’ Party of Korea. yunhap newsKim Yeo-jung, deputy director of the North Korean Workers’ Party, made a discourse on the 10th when the joint South Korea-U.S. joint exercises actually started and criticized the two countries. “A war demonstration and a nuclear war preparatory exercise to complete the preparations for the execution of an operational plan that aims to strike a preemptive strike against us (North Korea),” he used the expression “aggressive nature”.
It is not a new expression. North Korea has reacted to the extent of literally shaking hands, describing the South Korea-U.S. joint exercise as a ‘war exercise against the North Korean invasion’ for decades from the past. North Korea has its own reasons for doing this in 2021 as well.
Civil War Scenario ‘Computer and training ground simulation… North Korea terrified for decades
Provide smart imageThe ROK-U.S. Combined Forces will act according to the pre-established operational plan 5015 when North Korea completely invades South Korea or a sudden change occurs inside North Korea. Commonly referred to as the ROK-U.S. joint exercise, it is a theater-level exercise that simulates a simulation scenario. Usually, the first part is ‘defense’ and the second part is ‘counterattack’ and evaluation.
Until 2018, South Korea and the United States have been conducting FTX training in line with this scenario. In other words, similar to the actual operational plan, after deploying large-scale troops, they have been training in preparation for an invasion of South Korea. On-the-ground exercises and computer simulation-based command post training (CPX), also called war games, were also conducted in parallel.
For decades, North Korea has been so terrified that it has conducted counter-response drills every time it hears the news of the joint exercise and invoked a wartime alert. It was because of the thought that the ROK-US Combined Forces, which had gathered after receiving various supplies in the name of ‘training’, could ‘invasion’ them.
In fact, this is not unique to North Korea. For example, the ‘Able Archer’ exercise conducted by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1983 assumed an all-out war situation starting with a preemptive nuclear attack. It was because he doubted whether this was the case and entered a strict alert posture.
At a New Year’s press conference in 1990, then President Roh Tae-woo suggested that North Korea observe the drills at all, emphasizing the defensive nature of these exercises. North Korea did not accept it.
In December 1991, the Ministry of National Defense announced that North Korea signed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) ‘nuclear safety agreement’ and accepted nuclear inspection, and then accepted the simultaneous nuclear inspection of the two Koreas. proposed a plan that could be withheld or completely re-adjusted.
North Korea accepted this and adopted the ‘Joint Declaration on the Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula’, and in the spring of 1992, the Team Spirit exercise did not proceed. In April of this year, North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly ratified and agreed to the IAEA nuclear safety agreement, and nuclear inspections began in June.
However, South Korea and the United States announced at the Security Council Meeting (SCM) in October of that year, “If there is no meaningful progress, such as inter-Korean mutual nuclear inspection, we will continue to take preparatory measures for the 1993 Team Spirit exercise.” In fact, during the inspection, the IAEA learned that North Korea had operated a test operation of a plutonium reprocessing facility, and the US discovered through satellite that the United States had secretly built and operated an underground nuclear waste storage facility in Yongbyon.
The problem is that as of October 1992, the temple had not yet been completed. Inter-Korean relations, which had been lively enough to hold only eight high-level talks, froze again. The first North Korean nuclear crisis began in the spring of 1993 when North Korea declared its withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) on March 12, when exercises began.
Congressman Gary Ackerman, who visited North Korea in the same year and met then-President Kim Il-sung, said, “(Kim Il-sung) raised his voice and hands while discussing team spirit practice.” James Clapper, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) at the time, said, “North Korea is almost crazy about team spirit practice.”
In 1994, Korea and the US stopped practicing Team Spirit again, and in October of that year, the Geneva Agreement was reached with North America. The large-scale FTX started again in 1998 under the name Foal Eagle.
Kim Yeo-jeong dismissed the “scale and format never discussed” in the downsizing plan… what’s inside?
In 2018, Chairman Kim Jong-un announced his participation in the denuclearization negotiations along with his participation in the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, creating an atmosphere of dialogue. The Eagle Exercise, a large-scale FTX that had been carried out until that year, was suspended from the following year, and it was decided to conduct FTX only at the regimental level or lower.
At a regular briefing in March, Ministry of National Defense spokesman Boo Seung-chan said, “The combined training has been done consistently in terms of strengthening and maintaining the combined defense posture, which has been the command post training through computer simulation.” is distributed throughout the year without concentrating on a specific period, and is conducted in a balanced way, including some of the maneuver training that was performed during the Eagle training.”
However, on March 16th and August 1st, Kim Yeo-jung, deputy director of the North Korean Workers’ Party, repeatedly argued that the joint exercise itself was a problem, saying, “We have never discussed the size or form of the joint military exercise.”
In a statement issued on August 10, he said, “Whatever the size of the exercise or whatever format it takes, this joint military exercise is a war demonstration and nuclear war preliminary exercise to better prepare for the execution of an operational plan that aims to strike a preemptive strike against us. has an aggressive nature of
Hong Hyun-ik, the nominee for the National Diplomatic Academy, said in a YTN radio ‘mobile news head-to-head match’ on the 6th, “South Korea is superior to North Korea in conventional military power, and it lacks asymmetric power such as nuclear power.” “In principle, training is not necessary. “He said.
He also said on CBS Radio’s ‘Kim Hyun-jung’s News Show’ on the 10th, “If a sudden change occurs in North Korea, the inside is completely chaotic and the residents are in trouble, so we will occupy it and guarantee the stability of the local residents. Occupying North Korea.” He said, “There are even cases of beheading (operational) training (to remove the North Korean leadership). I can see how difficult it is to keep peace,” he said.
“The training is necessary for the combined defense posture and preparedness for provocations, but the government’s principle is to maintain peace on the Korean Peninsula. “, he added.
Nominee Hong, citing the 1993 Team Spirit exercise and the first North Korean nuclear crisis, said, “In order to maintain friendly relations and military cooperation between South Korea and the United States, we train, but if we use high-level measures to adjust the scale, inter-Korean relations will be a little difficult, but we will manage and manage the ROK-U.S. The relationship is also a way to maintain solidarity.”
From a military point of view alone, training should be conducted, but in the political aspect surrounding inter-Korean relations, it means that a compromise can be chosen to promote dialogue at the cost of some of this. There is also an analysis that there is another reason for Kim Yeo-jung to appear in this way.
Doo-hyeon Cha, senior research fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, said, “It is worth noting that there was no vulgar language peculiar to Kim Yeo-jeong’s discourse.” “He said. This means that from a proud North Korean standpoint, it is impossible to pass this year alone after opposing the joint exercises for decades.
“It is a message that North Korea wants South Korea to take more concession measures, and it means that North Korea is also starting to get nervous in the current fight between North Korea and the United States,” said Cha. North Korea is also starting to regret the level of inter-Korean exchanges and cooperation, which it did not pay attention to in the past, and for the time being, it is judged that attention and waiting will dominate rather than provocations against South Korea,” he added.
