Gregory Elich: Militarizing South Korea!!!

With the presidential election in South Korea just two months away, efforts are underway to lock into place a policy of confrontation with that nation's neighbor to the north. When current South Korean President Lee Myung-bak took office five years ago, he wasted little time in undoing the rapprochement that had been painstakingly built up during his predecessors term. All of the leading candidates in this year's presidential race, including even Park Geun-hye of the conservative Grand National Party, hold more moderate positions on relations with North Korea than does President Lee. Neither Lee nor US President Obama are keen on the prospect of warming relations between the two Koreas, and they are making every effort to forestall such an eventuality in the little time that remains in Lees term. Under provisions of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), an international treaty involving 34 nations, South Korea was committed to limiting its ballistic missiles to a range of no more than 300 kilometers and capping payload at 500 kilograms. The Lee Administration chafed under those restrictions, and long sought their removal. This month he met with success, reaching a deal with the US that allows South Korea to exceed the treaty's limits. The new agreement allows South Korea to develop ballistic missiles ranging up to 800 kilometers, sufficient to cover all of North Korea and sections of China and Russia. The payload limit remains at 500 kilograms, but only for missiles at the maximum allowable range. As South Korea sees it, any missile having a range lower than 550 kilometers can carry up to 1,000 kilograms of explosives. We can say that there is no payload limit actually, because if we launch a missile from the central region of the country, all of North Korean territory is under 550-kilometer striking range, observes Major General Shin Won-sik of the South Korean Ministry of National Defense.