Kim Kwan Jin, the Lee administration\u2019s pick for Minister of National Defense, told a hearing today that if North Korea were to provoke South Korea again, he would definitely order that it be \u201cshelled by fighters.\u201d<\/p>\n
At his confirmation hearing at the National Assembly this lunchtime, Kim was asked about rules of engagement, to which he replied, \u201cWe will distinguish rules of engagement from exercising the right of self-defense.\u201d <\/p>\n
Kim explained, \u201cThe Yeonpyeong provocation was not a matter of acting according to the rules of engagement, but a matter of exercising the right to self-defense.\u201d <\/p>\n
He added, \u201cWhen an accidental collision occurs, the guidelines are valid as guidelines, but when we are attacked first, we can punish the enemy to the point of completely eliminating the basis of the enemy threat at the level of the right to self-defense.\u201d <\/p>\n
He went on, \u201cI will deploy all available forces and if that is not enough, will add (ROK-US) combined forces and then counter-attack. I will revise the rules of engagement that way.\u201d <\/p>\n
To the question, \u201cDo you believe that North Korea was prepared for an all-out war when it started attacking?\u201d he said, \u201cI assume that it would be hard for North Korea to carry out an all-out war,\u201d and explained further, \u201cDue to economic affairs and the succession issue, it cannot develop into a total war.\u201d <\/p>\n
Finally, regarding the notion of the \u201cmain enemy\u201d of the South Korean military, he asserted, \u201cIt is obvious that North Korea\u2019s leadership and military is our main enemy.\u201d <\/p>\n
However, he added, \u201cI will have to sleep on whether or not to put this in the National Defense White Paper.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kim Kwan Jin, the Lee administration\u2019s pick for Minister of National Defense, told a hearing today that if North Korea were to provoke South Korea again, he would definitely order that it be \u201cshelled by fighters.\u201d At his confirmation hearing at the National Assembly this lunchtime, Kim was asked about rules of engagement, to which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":154,"featured_media":13947,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n