Allies step up defense coordination

South Korea and the U.S. stepped up their military coordination Friday to effectively fend off additional North Korean provocations, while attention was being drawn to whether they would apply their joint counter-provocation plan for the first time.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Adm. Choi Yun-hee and Combined Forces commander Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti have been sharing military intelligence in real time to ensure their militaries’ joint readiness posture, since Pyongyang’s rocket attack Thursday, Seoul officials said.

Currently, South Korea is independently dealing with Pyongyang’s limited attacks. But when the intensity and scope of the communist regime’s provocations increase, the allies are expected to activate their joint plan to better counter North Korean provocations.

“In the case of the limited attack by the North, we are to make independent responses from the standpoint of self-defense, and we are, of course, sharing the situational information with the U.S.,” a Seoul defense official told The Korea Herald.

“But when the allies share the need for joint operations and their leaders approve it, we will apply the allied counter-provocation plan. We are not yet at that stage.”

The contingency plan was signed in March 2013 by the allies’ military chiefs to “immediately and decisively” counter North Korean provocations. Under the plan, the South would lead counter-provocation operations with the U.S. providing support.

The allies have not elaborated on operational specifics, but the plan is thought to stipulate concrete steps for various provocation scenarios that could occur within the Demilitarized Zone separating the two Koreas, and the Northern Limit Line, the de facto inter-Korean sea border.

The plan was drawn up when South Korea sought to take strong retaliatory measures against the North, which had launched a series of deadly surprise attacks on the South, while the U.S. apparently urged its ally to exercise restraint to prevent an escalation of a cross-border conflict.

Coordination between the allies remains seamless, Seoul officials said, as the contingency plan was employed amid the ongoing South Korea-U.S. military exercise, called “Ulchi Freedom Guardian.” The allies have raised their vigilance levels to increase their joint reconnaissance activities and readiness posture.

The allies have also put their major military assets on standby to respond to potential North Korean provocations, including those assets that have been mobilized for ongoing military drills, Seoul officials noted.

On Thursday, the North sent a letter to South Korean authorities, threatening to take military action should they not stop frontline propaganda broadcasts within 48 hours. Seoul resumed loudspeaker propaganda activities after Pyongyang launched land mine attacks on Aug. 4, inflicting serious injuries on two South Korean soldiers.

By Song Sang-ho (sshluck@heraldcorp.com)