Through one of the latest and most serious war crises in Korean peninsula since the temporarily-paused but never-completely-ending Korean War since July 1953, the world in general, the Northeast Asia region in particular seemed to have further realized several crucial facts.
Not between North and South, but North with the US
The first fact is Korean conflicts’ historical background that has been distorted, forgotten and/or hidden, so that those ongoing conflicts for over 60 years in Korean peninsula have been seen as the one “between North and South Korean brothers.”
However, as a matter of fact, both November 23rd and December 20th, in addition to the March 26th when Cheonan mysteriously sank, all three major military drills took place directly under America’s “(both peacetime and wartime) operational control.”
South Korean President Lee Myungbak, like all of his predecessors, does not have any legal, military and political power or authority to order or control over his own nation’s military whatsoever.
This extremely dependent (so many call it “puppet”) system is known seemingly the only case in the world in which a sovereign nation has let other country’s foreign (local) military commander has the host nation’s military (army, navy and air) operational control.
This very much subordinated thereby servile, captive, even enslaved relationship in nature has been cemented since July 14, 1950 when ROK’s first US installed-president Rhee Syngman handed over his military operational command to the then UN (US) commander General MacArthur.
All three military drills in 2010, too, in addition to each and every one (countless number) of military operations on Korean soil since September 1945 when US military occupied the southern part of Korea which was supposed to be liberated from the Japanese 40 yearlong colonial rule, were operated by America’s military and geopolitical strategic decisions.
Therefore, like in the past, this year’s war crisis and extremely heightened military confrontations in Korean peninsula must not be considered the conflicts between North and South, but North with the US.
Most South Korean governments in the past, except a couple of exceptions such as late Presidents Kim Daejung and Roh Moohyun, seem hardly avoidable to escape from a critique that they have been ”America’s proxy regimes in Northeast Asia region.”
DPRK Convenient Scapegoat for America’s Northeast Asia Strategy
The second fact lies in a new strategic phenomenon that this year’s three major military drills where air carrier USS George Washington was involved with had consecutively taken place in the West Sea of Korean peninsula, not in the East Sea.
However, throughout the past since 1953, most, if not all, war crises such as at the time of North Korean seizure of US spy ship Pueblo in 1968 and other major conflicts took place in the East Sea, not in the West Sea.
As many analysts argue, it’s due to the fact that China has risen in all aspects, most distinctively its continued economic development and its rapidly growing influence onto the global affairs in general, the Northeast Asia region in particular.
As many including Chinese strategists have already pointed out, the reason why US moved its war games from Korea’s East Sea to the West is doubtlessly America’s strategic intention to continually pressure China militarily, economically and politically.
The West Sea of Korea which is also called Yellow Sea, as both Koreans and Chinese call, is within the geopolitical and military proximity from missile shooting range of US warships to the most important power centers of China, including Beijing the Capitol City.
Needlessly to say, it’s also a US psychological warfare. However, in order to justify and hide its utmost but hidden strategic target China, the US has repeatedly made DPRK (North Korea) a convenient scapegoat.
Undoubtedly, America’s utmost strategic goal in Korean peninsula is to topple North Korea. This is often termed “regime change.” US, Japan and South Korea now even publicly talk about it as their common goal.
By doing so, they want people believe North Korea’s collapse is imminent. Of course, it’s also another set of war propaganda, a psychological warfare.
As in the past for over 60 years, from the 1950-53 Korean War to the Cheonan sinking incident and Yeonpyong Island conflicts in 2010, the US has continuously employed its stereotypical war propaganda tactic, i.e., the demonization of North Korea as the “aggressor”!
South Korean Presidency in Jeopardy and Need for Constant State of War Crisis
The third fact is that Lee’s extremely rightwing “pro-US” government is in irrecoverably freefalling domestic political crises due to its massive financial, political and moral crimes with unbelievable degrees and volumes of corruptions, frauds, and fabrications.
Unprecedented financial, political and moral crimes have taken place since he’s assumed the power three years ago. Illegal use of government powers is rampant. Most challengingly, in order to cover up those crimes, unimaginably dangerous military crises seemed to have been fabricated.
There is a distinctive example: According to South Korean mainstream media, “more than 2/3 of South Korean people do not believe the so-called ‘Official Int’l Joint Investigation Report’ on the Cheonan sinking incident.” Rather they are very much suspicious if it might not have been fabricated, as many in the world have already argued.
It’s a well-known fact the March 26th’s sinking incident took place just before the scheduled South Korean Local Election on June 2 when Lee’s regime then was already in big troubles.
In that election, even if, while fully being backed by Obama administration, Lee’s conservative ruling party manipulated the sinking incident at maximum level until the Election Day, as previous pro-US (flunkey) regimes did similar things in the past, they lost miserably, however.
Since the failed election in June, unfortunately, a police or fascist state in a form of national security state, like the times of Park Junghee and Chun Doohwan in the past, has been reestablished into South Korean society.
Political cronyism in extreme degree, almost like an “organized crime,” goes beyond imagination. In order to cover up all those crimes, while suppressing all sorts of sociopolitical oppositions, his failed regime desperately needs a constant state of war crisis, the “national security state.”
It means, for his political survival, he has dared to push his own people, the nation he was supposed to serve and his neighboring countries in the region to the brink of an all-out war.