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O Christmas Tree: Squabble Over South Korean Border Display Could Escalate

2 years ago
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David Wood
Chief Military Correspondent
Ah, Christmas on the Korean peninsula!

Reviving a tradition dormant for seven years, South Korea has erected a 100-foot Christmas tree-shaped tower on its side of the Demilitarized Zone, and decorated it with 100,000 lights -- and a lighted cross. As armed Republic of Korea Marines stood guard, a choir stood at the foot of the "tree'' and sang carols, amplified to blast the Christmas music into the mandatorily atheist North.

As expected in this tortured land where at least 1.6 million people (and probably twice that many) were killed, wounded or went missing in three years of war (1950-53), North Korea threatened to destroy the tower. South Korea vowed military retaliation if the North messed with its Christmas display.

To underscore its point, South Korea aims to launch major military maneuvers Thursday near the DMZ, involving just the kind of operation necessary to thwart a North Korean invasion: thousands of troops, tanks, artillery attack helicopters and jet fighters, all using live ammunition. It will be the biggest-ever wintertime war rehearsal, according to an AP dispatch from Seoul.

North Korea describes this situation as "the brink of war.'' Even if one were to ignite by accident or miscalculation in the jostling over the Christmas display, another conflict there could be devastating. Some 28,500 U.S. soldiers are stationed in South Korea.
South Korea forces, already on high alert since North Korean artillery struck a South Korean island last month, killing four people, also are holding four days of submarine warfare exercises off the east coast, where they will practice intercepting and destroying North Korean midget submarines.

While it's often North Korea that threatens and blusters, lobbing incendiary rhetoric at the outside world, this time it seems the South is talking smack.

"We will completely punish the enemy if it provokes us again like the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island," said Brig. Gen. Ju Eun-sik, chief of the army's 1st armored brigade, the AP reported.

Last week, authorities in Seoul -- within easy range of North Korean guns -- held the biggest civil defense drill in 35 years, as tens of thousands of people practiced racing into subway tunnels to escape an imaginary North Korean shelling.

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6 Comments

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morristhewise

There no holiday as uplifting as Groundhog’s Day, it is Mother Nature`s gift to the Earth between winter and spring, It is a day when people start coming out of hibernation and start thinking about the great outdoors. The groundhog is a furry and inoffensive animal.When they exit their deep and safe burrow they are happy about the end of a long and cold winter. So get out on Groundhog’s Day and hopefully you can leave your winter coat behind.

December 22 2010 at 9:44 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
rann948

South Korea is a sovereign nation, and to suggest that something they are doing that doesn't harm anyone should stop because another country says so is bogus. North Korea needs to be smacked down hard.

December 22 2010 at 1:19 PM Report abuse +1 rate up rate down Reply
Scotty

The Chinese would put a lid on North Korea if we all simply stopped going to Walmart 5 days a week. We have the pwer....we just don't have the resolve. What a pity.

December 22 2010 at 1:06 PM Report abuse +1 rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to Scotty's comment
rann948

Why are you picking on Walmart? Is that the only store you shop at? Made in China is in EVERY STORE.

December 22 2010 at 1:20 PM Report abuse +1 rate up rate down Reply
Kenneth

rann948... You a are correct made in China is in every store. People have to program themselves to check where an item was made before purchasing. Since this country economic collapse I check the country of origin on everything I purchase.If not made in America put back on shelf. The produce store where we shop has gone to all grown in America products. He used to sell American and some imports but he stated people started letting the imports rot on the shelf.

December 22 2010 at 6:54 PM Report abuse +1 rate up rate down Reply
dc walker

.........massive military exercises in the cold of winter....Governor Richardson's visit to North Korea. Last May's attack on the South Korean Navy vessel. North Korea's shelling of an island. And that folks is how we get into world wars. There should be a referendum at the UN that China reel in North Korea, or everyone will cut off the food exports to North Korea.

December 22 2010 at 12:26 PM Report abuse +2 rate up rate down Reply

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