I am writing this article in order to voice my ardent hope to all, an ever-lasting peace on the Korean peninsula.
However, war can break out regardless of what action we decide to take. Thus, we need to steel ourselves against a possible war.
What if North Korea waged a full-fledged war against South Korea this October If so, what should be the first step the South Korean president has to take in preparing the nation for a second Korean War
What do the South Korean armed forces have to do and how should the public react
Our first order of business is to find out ways to protect our territory, especially the Seoul Metropolitan Area, and minimize war casualties. And then we should worry about economic losses.
The best way to do so is to make South Korea ready for launching a preemptive strike against North Korea upon detecting any signs of North Korea moving towards a massive strike or an all-out war against South Korea.
When it comes to the North initiating a full-scale war against the South, the South has to move beyond its normal tit-for-tat responses to North Korea’s provocations. It will not be enough for the commander-in-chief to order the nation’s armed forces to immediately strike back at the origin of the North’s attack and retaliate with much greater intensity when we have to fight an all-out war with North Korea.
Preemptive attacks, not defensive responses, are not only the best defense policy but also a more powerful deterrent against a second Korean War initiated by North Korea.
If we let the rest of the world know that we will preemptively attack the North upon detecting any signs of North Korea preparing for a full-scale war against us, we could hamper North Korea’s attempts to launch abrupt and surprise provocations, move its troops, military vehicles and missiles and could bolster our war deterrence against North Korea.
In the immediate run up to any full-scale war, the command in chief’s sound judgment and quick decisions making could make a big difference in the amount of damage, as well as in the number of deaths (the death toll could be in the hundreds of thousands, not reaching into the tens of millions).
If we opted for defensive armed reprisals after North Korea’s preemptive strike against us, we could suffer too many casualties. Once we have been hit by a preemptive strike, massive attacks with both front-line and back-line units carrying out simultaneous air strikes will ensue, thus costing millions of lives and increasing the risk of North Korea-led unification of the Korean peninsula.
The South Korean president should take measures now so as to swiftly put the nation on a war footing in moments of national security crisis by declaring a state of emergency and ordering preemptive strikes, the dissolution of the National Assembly and the detainment of North Korea spies. In other words, the nation now needs a fully prepared president.
Is our war deterrence against North Korea still in place
At any rate, we did maintain some degree of war deterrence against North Korea as we responded to the North’s numerous local provocations.
However, it is fair to say that our war deterrence against North Korea has collapsed as North Korea has succeeded in the development of nuclear weapons, miniaturization of nuclear warheads and the development of various kinds of mobile missile launch technologies.
Judging from North Korea’s power structure, whereby nothing puts brakes on 32-year-old North Korea leader Kim Jong-Un’s radical personality and drastic leadership style, the probability of North Korea initiating a second Korean War has definitely increased.
Now, the South Korean president has to fully familiarize herself with what steps should be urgently taken first to make the nation ready for war when any national security crisis puts the Korean peninsula on the brink of war.
Instead of making a hush-hush approach towards the likelihood of North Korea waging an all-out war against South Korea, we need to publicly discuss the need for gearing the nation up for a possible preemptive strike by the North. And the president, the military and the public all should be on high alert to speedily play their part in case of national security crisis.
Only when we make such efforts, can we nip North Korea’s designs to attack us in the bud or minimize damage in case of another provocation.
By Jung Yeon-tae, Chairman of the Innovation Forum for Nation
