The expulsion of South Korean officials from the Kaesong Industrial Complex on March 27th, along with the test firing of short range missiles into the West Sea on March 28th is causing many in the South to ask questions.
North Korea fired three Surface to Surface missiles with a range of 46km into the West Sea at 10:30 A.M. It has been 9 months since the test firing of the KN-02 missile with a 120km range, which occurred three times in May – June, 2007.
This missile test appears to be general military training because the North Korean naval winter training is held from early January to late March. However experts believe that North Korea conducted the test in an attempt to worsen the South-North relations 10 days ahead of the general parliamentary elections.
Park Young Ho, senior researcher of Korea Institute for National Unification, said that “Even though it looks like a general North Korean military training test, it will be interpreted as being conducted for the purpose of applying pressure to the South Korean administration.”
Researcher at the Sejong Institute, Song Dae Sung asserted that “the missiles tests seem to have the intention of influencing South Korea’s general elections. North Korea would like the Lee Myung Bak administration blamed for rising tension between the South and the North, thereby encouraging voters to elect the opposition party’s candidates.”
He added that North Korea is dissatisfied with the Lee administration’s harsh public statements regarding North Korea. “By worsening the South Korean public opinion of the Lee administration, and creating tension in relations between the North and the South, North Korea plans to lead the South-North relations in such a way that will be profitable to them.”
Researcher of Korea Institute for Defense Analyses Kim Tae Woo revealed that, “What North Korea really wants is for the South to react sensitively to the missile tests. I think that in regard to the security issue we should try to cope with it prudently.”
Regarding to this, spokesperson of the Blue House Lee Dong Gwan revealed, “We think that North Korea does not want tension in South-North relations.”
