Lee Rights a Roh Wrong: Renames 2002 Naval Battle
by Richardson ~ April 8th, 2008. Filed under: ROK Miltary.
South Korea Tuesday renamed the 2002 inter-Korean naval clash in the West Sea to better reflect the nature of the battle, fought to defend the de facto sea border against invasion from the North, which does not recognize the border.
The official reference to the 2002 battle has been changed to the “2nd Yeonpyeong Sea Battle” from the previous “Exchange of Fire in the West Sea” as its previous name did not correctly reflect the significance of the battle, the Defense Ministry said Tuesday.
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Critics said the previous Roh administration downplayed the sacrifice of the six South Korean soldiers killed in the battle by dubbing it as an “Exchange of Fire” which emphasizes the equal nature of the incident in an apparent bid not to provoke the North Korean side.
Also see ROK Drop on this subject.
April 10th, 2008 at 6:57 pm
If I remember correctly, it was the Kim Dae-Jung Presidency in office at the time and it went out of its way to wipe away the event. I seem to remember its officials said that it “might have” happened like Pyongyang was saying — that it was South Korean crabbing ships that caused the event to happen. And I clearly remember the South Korean government accepting immediately — more than immediatly — the “apology” from Pyongyang which was nothing more than saying North Korea wished the event had not taken place — which left it neutral as to who was at fault in the “accident”.
April 10th, 2008 at 7:09 pm
You’re right that it was in the last months of KDJ, but I believe it was officially named under Roh. And yes, KDJ bent over backwards to break first tenet of the ‘Sunshine Policy’ that, “No armed provocation by the North will be tolerated.”