Amid mounting tension on the Korean Peninsula triggered by strong verbal offensives by North Korea against Seoul, South Korea and the United States started a joint military exercise, known as “Key Resolve”, on March 9. Twenty-six-thousand U.S. troops and 20,000 South Korean soldiers are participating in the nationwide drill, which will continue until March 20. The South Korean Navy’s first Aegis destroyer, “Sejong the Great,” is participating in the drill for the first time. According to reports, this year’s drill will include the highest ever number of destroyers equipped with the advanced Aegis system. Dr. Baek Seung-ju from the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses stresses that the two countries are simply conducting an annual, defense-oriented exercise.

“Key Resolve” is a joint military drill between South Korea and the United States. It is aimed at upgrading the allied forces’ capability to mobilize U.S. forces from bases outside Korea in the event of an emergency. The name of the exercise was changed to “Key Resolve” last year. This year’s exercise period will be a little longer than that of last year, since South Korea is preparing to take over wartime operational control of its armed forces from the U.S. in 2012. During this year’s exercise, South Korean troops will examine their capability to lead a war and reinforce relevant training. Preparations for the “Key Resolve” drill have been underway for quite some time and are not directly related to current inter-Korean relations. The South Korean and U.S. military authorities even invited the North Korean military to watch the drill. They have repeatedly explained to the North that it is an annual exercise with purely defensive purposes.

But North Korea defines the annual drill as a prelude to war, and is responding by stepping up its pressure against South Korea. Pyongyang announced on March 5th that it could not ensure the safety of South Korean passenger jets traveling in the North Korean airspace during the “Key Resolve” exercise period. During general-level talks with the U.S.-led United Nations Command the following day, North Korea also threatened to take strong actions unless the military drill is canceled. On March 9, the North said it would immediately retaliate against any attempt to shoot down its Gwangmyungseong-2 satellite by mobilizing “the most powerful military means.” Dr. Baek explains why North Korea is so sensitive about this year’s military drill between South Korea and the U.S.

North Korea said it wouldn’t guarantee the safety of South Korean commercial airliners flying over its eastern waters. It’s another threat against Seoul, along with its refusal to recognize the Northern Limit Line, the de-facto maritime military demarcation line in the West Sea, and the restriction of overland passage through the inter-Korean border. So, the North is pressuring South Korea in all geographical positions—the West Sea, the East Sea and the land border. Through its confrontational move, North Korea is demonstrating its determination to resist all pressure from the U.S. or South Korea. Psychologically, Pyongyang wants to remind South Korean people that tension is escalating on their peninsula solely because of the “Key Resolve” exercise and the Seoul government’s faulty approach to North Korea. Also, the North thinks it will be more advantageous for its regime’s survival to maintain tension in the region.

In another discouraging move, a military spokesman for the North announced on March 9 that it would cut off military communication lines with the South during the “Key Resolve” drill period. The communication lines are telephone lines between the military authorities of the two sides installed in joint management zones at the eastern and western parts of the border, and the last channel for the South and the North to communicate. The North’s latest move is adding fuel to the already heightened military tension between the two sides. Dr. Baek points out that the suspension of the military communication lines means a virtual disconnection of inter-Korean dialogue.

The communication system between the two Koreas began operating in June of 2004 in an effort to prevent accidental clashes in the West Sea. The two sides maintained six such lines in the western part and three in the eastern part. But the six communication lines in the western part stopped operating in May last year due to technical problems. And North Korea recently cut off the remaining three eastern lines. The communication lines were installed with the purpose of immediately talking to each other in case of an emergency and thus preventing accidental military clashes near border areas. But South and North have now lost their last channel to communicate in case of contingencies.

When North Korea cut off military communication lines on March 9, 80 South Korean workers became stranded at the Gaeseong complex because the decision blocked the passage of people and vehicles to and from the industrial park. Fortunately, the North allowed South Koreans to cross its border the following day, but it remains to be seen what other hostile actions the North may take. Diplomatic experts are paying keen attention to whether Pyongyang will take any provocative measures, including a missile launch. But Dr. Baek predicts the North will find it inappropriate to take such actions during the period of the South Korea-U.S. joint military drill, which involves large-scale U.S. forces.

If North Korea ever attempts to provoke a military clash, it should maximize damage to its enemy while keeping its own loss to a minimum. Only then will the provocation prove effective. But any mishap to offend both South Korea and the U.S. during their joint military drill period will almost certainly decrease the expected effect, which the North doesn’t want to do. So, I imagine Pyongyang will be rather circumspect about a serious provocation, at least during this period. The Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, an organ of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party, said the North could not guarantee the safety of South Korean passenger planes flying over its eastern waters. If the North does intend to launch a missile into the East Sea, it should have given similar warnings to airliners of the U.S., Japan, China and Russia as well. Considering the North didn’t make any threats against those countries, it is unlikely that the North will fire a missile into the East Sea, at least during the “Key Resolve” exercise period.

Unless there’s a breakthrough in inter-Korean ties, experts say North Korea may employ another brinksmanship tactic after the South Korea-U.S. joint military drill has concluded. Hopefully, the ongoing military exercise will be completed without incident and involved countries will arrive at a peaceful solution to ease the current diplomatic setback. 　 [Interview]Doctor’s License Seals N. Korean Defector’s Victory over Plight

Kim Ji-eun is a former Oriental medicine doctor in North Korea who defected to the South. She was able to pass the state exam for Oriental medicine doctors here in South Korea, and the reward was so valuable, it made up for her depressing past. Kim graduated from the Cheongjin Medical School in North Korea and worked as an Oriental medicine doctor for eight years. Many North Korean citizens, even patients in critical medical condition, reportedly use alternative medicine, and the government gives more support to Oriental medicine than to Western treatments. Also, medical doctors earn nearly three times the income of average workers in the North. But why did Kim decide to give up her vested interest and escape her home country?

There were many reasons. When I was in charge of a children’s ward at a local clinic in 1994, I realized I was in the wrong job. Many young children were starving the death, but there was nothing I could do as a doctor. It came to me that I didn’t study medicine to helplessly watch my patients die. I began to hate my job. North Korea boasts of its free medical services. Technically, it’s free to use hospitals. But no medicine is available in hospitals or clinics, so patients have no other option but to buy expensive medicine on the black market. That isn’t a free treatment system, is it? I couldn’t understand why the medical system worked that way and I felt ashamed of myself in front of my patients. I was a doctor, but I was busy making ends meet, just like other ordinary citizens, because my country was so poor.

After defecting from North Korea, she felt betrayed and deceived by her home country. Before, she thought North Korea was the best country in the world where people could live happily and comfortably. Stepping into the outside world, she found this wasn’t true. She decided to pursue her old job again because she wanted to use her skills to give back to South Korean society. Unfortunately, she faced an unexpected difficulty. The Unification Ministry and the Education Ministry accepted her academic career in North Korea, but the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Family Affairs didn’t recognize her credentials. Because the application process for the Oriental medicine exam is administered by the health ministry, no South Korean medical schools would accept Kim. Eventually, she filed an official petition with the National Assembly, demanding her right to apply for the exam. By doing so, she became the first North Korean defector to attend a parliamentary audit.

During the parliamentary audit, I said all I wanted was a chance to take the test. Would it hurt to give me the qualification to take the test? I told the members of the National Assembly that Korea’s unification would never be realized if they thought in that way. I said it was not a matter of simply giving a North Korean defector an Oriental medicine doctor’s license, but a matter involving the unification of the two Koreas. I also told them their job was to collect information about the standard of North Korean medicine and education and to devise ways to educate Northern defectors like me. The lawmakers became quiet. After a while, a coordinator of state affairs said, “Work this problem out. South Korea owes three years to Kim Ji-eun.” By those simple words, all the problems were solved.

Her story was made public, and the situation changed. Several Oriental medical schools invited Kim to enroll, and she was ultimately admitted to the Semyung College of Oriental Medicine in 2005. But she was nervous every day, even after entering the school, for fear of repeating a grade due to poor performance. But thanks to the warm support from her much younger classmates, Kim was able to get over the difficulties. She was familiar with North Korea’s clinical medicine, and her intensive theoretical studies in the South boosted her knowledge and skills in the field. With the revision of a law in 2007, former North Korean medical doctors were allowed to take the state exam for professional licenses. Kim passed the exam this year, and she has started a new life as a competent Oriental medicine doctor, something she has long dreamed of.