South Korea’s No-Fly Zone Plan Stirs Controversy

Date: 21 October 2018 - 21:52

News ID: ۵۸۷۶۴

SEOUL (Dispatches) -- Controversy has grown over South Korea's plan to establish a no-fly zone along the border with North Korea, prompting debate over the question of building trust with Pyongyang without compromising the military's reconnaissance capabilities.
The two Koreas' defense chiefs agreed last month to ban aircraft flights over the heavily fortified demilitarized zone and the surrounding area. The agreement was signed following a summit between President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang on Sept 19.
The Moon Jae-in administration maintains that the measure is crucial to addressing the lack of military trust between the two countries, suggesting that preventing accidental clashes between forward-deployed units is key to reducing the risk of minor skirmishes escalating into an all-out war.
Effective Nov 1, the two Koreas will be banned from flying fighter jets, choppers, drones and even balloons inside the no-fly zone.
But concern persists among security experts that establishing a no-fly zone is a reckless step to pursue with North Korea, whose nuclear weapons and massive conventional forces pose a significant threat to South Korea.
"I'm afraid the South Korean military has become blinded, unable to see what North Korea is doing," said retired Lt Gen Shin won-sik, who served as Vice-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff before leaving the Army in 2016.
"North Korea's advantage in asymmetric capabilities can only be offset by South Korea's advanced surveillance, reconnaissance and precision-strike capabilities. Establishing a no-fly zone has killed such capabilities."
In particular, Lt Gen Shin warned that the measure might undermine the military's ability to detect surprise attacks from North Korea, especially those from massive artillery units positioned along the DMZ.
North Korea has stationed massive artillery units capable of hitting Seoul with tens of thousands of rounds within the first hour of a conflict. While the inter-Korean detente has raised the hope that the artillery units might be withdrawn, no such agreement was made between the two Koreas.
Shin In-gyun, president of the Korea Defence Network, believes that establishing a no-fly zone is a strategic mistake. Given that North Korea's surveillance and airpower lag far behind that of South Korea, he said, the military agreement favors Pyongyang.
"Now there is a significant gap between the two Koreas in terms of airpower and reconnaissance capabilities... Speaking about the capabilities that North Korea doesn't possess, it seems that we struck a deal that only ends up neutralizing our capabilities," he said.