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This year marks the 13th anniversary of the second Yeonpyeong naval skirmish in waters off the South Korean border island of Yeonpyeong in the Yellow (West) Sea between the two Koreas, which took place on June 29, 2002.
On June 24, a Korean movie titled ''Battle of Yeonpyeong" commemorating the battle was released. It made us think of the two sea battles during the turn-of-the-century period in view of national security posture against the bellicose North Korean regime. Its belligerence is often displayed when they occasionally infiltrate the Northern Limit Line (NLL) on the designated West Sea border.
As I mentioned, there were two battles in the Yeonpyeong area. The first battle took place on June 15, 1999 after North Korean gunships allegedly crossed the NLL, prompting a South Korean high-speed boat to ram into a North Korean torpedo ship, causing it to sink. South Korean ships also destroyed five North Korean patrol boats, killing around 20 North Koreans and injuring 30. South Korean losses totaled nine injuries and minimal damage to the hulls of a patrol ship and a high-speed boat. The battle was the first naval clash of the two Koreas since the ceasefire of the Korean War in 1953. The victory became the source of great pride for the Navy, but the sailors involved were not given proper credit at the time.
The film focuses on the second battle, which took place while the nation was overwhelmed by the 2002 World Cup. In this battle, six South Korean sailors lost their lives and 19 were wounded, causing some 38 casualties in the North, after the South's high-speed patrol boat Chamsuri (Stella's Sea Eagle) 357 was sunk by a North Korean counterpart Deungsangoj CPB-684. The deaths of the South Korean sailors were due largely to the impractical rules of engagement, which were devised to minimize military tension, and ended up costing lives, as a result of a too-late, too-weak response. Also criticized by the general public at the time was then-President Kim Dae-jung, who visited Japan to attend the Korea-Japan Joint World Cup final in Yokohama with Emperor Akihito as scheduled instead of grieving with the rest of Korea.
The first battle lasted 14 minutes, while the second lasted 25. A lack of decisiveness by field commanders caused people to lose their lives and sparked changes in military protocol. The Second Fleet of the Korean Navy in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, marked the 10th anniversary of the first battle in 2009. It was elevated in 2010, and the Korean Navy Headquarters in Gayryong, South Chungcheong Province took control. Following the first battle, the South Korean military created a new rule of engagement requiring vessels to block North Korean ships crossing over the NLL, then broadcast warning messages, demand that they return to their side of the maritime border and fire warning shots before being authorized to fire at the North ships.
The sacrifice of six sailors at the second battle by the North Koreans, sparked by ''anti-American feelings," on the other hand, has been heroically portrayed on the silver screen in a new movie directed by Kim Hak-soon. The movie was funded not only by the Navy but also spontaneously by a multitude of citizens, attracting more than 6 million passionate theater-goers within the 34 days since its opening night.
After the first battle, North Korea announced that the armistice would no longer be valid and that the safety of vessels in the area could not be guaranteed. Subsequently, there have been numerous NLL clashes between the two Koreas over the disputed West Sea islands during the past half-decade, killing dozens and sinking vessels: the bombardment from naval guns on Daechung Island (Nov. 2009), the sinking of the Cheonan PCC-772 boat (March 2010) and the artillery shelling of Yeonpyeong Island (Nov. 2010).
The two Yeonpyeong naval battles remind us of the illusion for the so-called ''Sunshine Policy" of rapprochement with North Korea advocated by President Kim Dae-joong's administration as well as the U.S. sanction for changing strategic military rules to allow its troops to strike first if threatened by intruding North Korean ships.
The best way to stop North Korea from resorting to reckless assaults is to make sure that we are fully prepared to immediately retaliate by learning lessons from the two previous North's savage sea attacks.
The writer is an outside director of Samyang Tongsang Co. in Seoul. He can be reached at kexim2@unitel.co.kr.
