Tension in Korea

Press, 23 August 1976, Page 16

Tension in Korea

Responsibility for last week’s unpleasant incident in the Korean truce zone cannot be laid yet, with confidence, on the shoulders of either side. Each side is accusing the other of deliberate provocation. But not even the most aggressive members of the armed forces of the United States can seriously be thought eager to embroil the United States in a land war in East Asia. ; The leaders of North Korea sta/nd to benefit more from rising tension along the border than the leaders} of South Korea. South Korea is, at ' the moment, uncertain of the extend to which it can rely on American support. Distaste for repression in Soifth Korea has been growing in the United States and the Congress has been reluctant to approve the plans of the Administration to increase military aid to President Park’s Government. Mr Caster has suggested publicly that America's commitment to South Korea shotrld bqreconsidered and American ground ftnsces gradually pulled out of that country.

Even if they did not order their troops to cause last incident, the North Koreans may be t/smpted to seize

the opportunity to nibble away more fiercely at the edges of the will and resolution of the South Koreans and to increase the feeling of insecurity south of the demilitarised zone. They may welcome too, an opportunity to test the extent to which the American public will tolerate a reinforcement of United States’ forces in South Korea. If North Korea attempts to use the incident to foment the disputes between the two Koreas, or even to attempt to reunify the peninsula by force, its efforts should be checked, by a decisive show of force if necessary. This course is desirable not because South Korea is a State more worthy of support than North Korea—when political, social, and economic aspects are all taken into account there appears to be little to choose between them—but because a second Korean War would serve no good purpose.

Political reunification of the Korean peninsula may be a desirable goal, but both sides must be persuaded, or required, to avoid the dangerous course of trying to impose reunification by force.