South
Korea braces for taste
of terror By Bruce Klingner
Seoul
increased its domestic and overseas terror-alert status
after recent terrorist threats, reinforcing domestic
concerns over terrorist attacks and potentially laying
the groundwork for renewed debate over continued support
for United States operations in Iraq, where Seoul has
deployed about 3,000 troops.
South Korea's
National Intelligence Service (NIS) has assessed that
al-Qaeda and its associated groups' sphere of operations
was slowly moving from the Middle East and Southeast
Asia, increasing its attention on Northeast Asia, and
said there was an increasing possibility of terrorist
attacks on US allies South Korea and Japan.
The
latest threat came from a heretofore unknown group
called the Martyr Hammoud Al-Masri Battalion, which
identified itself as "al-Qaeda's network in South and
East Asia". It warned on an Arabic-language website
called montada (which means "gathering") in a message
dated September 30 that it would "make Korea suffer"
both in Iraq and at home if South Korean troops were not
pulled out of Iraq within 14 days. The group claims to
have already "stationed ourselves inside Seoul itself"
and to be "awaiting the zero hour".
Authorities
said the message was posted on October 10, but they
indicated that they were working on the basis of 14 days
from September 30. If that is true, then the deadline
appears to have passed.
This most recent threat
comes on the heels of the broadcast on October 1 by
al-Jazeera television of al-Qaeda deputy leader Ayman
al-Zawahri calling on all Muslims to attack South Korea,
along with the United States, the United Kingdom,
Australia, Poland and Norway. A South Korean government
spokesman warned that the country had become "a serious
and actual target of an international terrorist attack"
and that the "level of alert has never been higher".
Al-Zawahri, in his broadcast, had blamed those
countries for the invasion of Afghanistan, Iraq and
Chechnya, and facilitating "a raison d'etre for
Israel". He exhorted Muslims not to wait for those
countries to "invade Egypt, the Arabian Peninsula, Yemen
and Algeria and then start the resistance after the
occupier has already invaded us ... [instead they]
should start now".
Defensive
measures South Korean Unification Minister Chung
Dong-young convened an emergency meeting of the National
Security Council on October 2 after the al-Zawahri
threat and Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Ban
Ki-moon subsequently directed South Korea's embassies to
improve their own security as well as alert South Korean
companies and citizens abroad. The South Korean Joint
Chiefs of Staff ordered all military units, including
the Zaitun (Arabic for "olive") unit deployed in Iraq,
to implement anti-terrorist plans. A South Korean
military official stated that Iraqi insurgent groups,
including Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's Unification and Jihad,
were promising an US$8,000 bounty for each South Korean
soldier or citizen taken hostage. Zarqawi's group
kidnapped and beheaded South Korean translator Kim
Sun-il in June.
Domestically, the Seoul
government has increased security at ports, airports,
and government buildings, deployed more than 5,000
police to 250 potential targets throughout the country,
placed designated military and police counter-terrorist
units on alert, and imposed a ban against 4,000
suspected members of terrorist groups from entering the
country.
Beyond South Korean
borders The National Defense Ministry announced
its intention to deploy naval vessels to escort South
Korean ships transiting volatile sea lanes in the Indian
Ocean and Southeast Asia, including the Malacca Strait,
to deter terrorist attacks and ensure the country's oil
supply. Defense officials are considering using two
destroyers and Lynx helicopters, as well as naval
special-forces units. The ministry stated that it will
increase cooperation with the navies of the Philippines,
Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia. By 2020, the ministry
plans to establish a quick-reaction naval force
comprising six destroyers and landing craft for marine
assault forces.
Steadily increasing
threats In the past year, fundamentalist Islamic
terrorists have increased their efforts to target
coalition allies in a strategy to undermine government
and public resolve. Although most plans have targeted
coalition military and civilian targets in Iraq, the
Madrid bombing on March 11 marked a dramatic, and
ultimately successful, effort to force a policy reversal
- the pro-US Spanish government was subsequently voted
out of office. US allies have been shaken by the danger
of domestic attacks intended to replicate the "Madrid
effect", and this has led previously stalwart allies,
such as Thailand and the Philippines, to waver in
government pronouncements and commitments, citing
deteriorating security in Iraq. The Philippines recently
withdrew its small contingent of 51 personnel one month
early, after insurgents kidnapped a Filipino and
demanded that Manila withdraw its troops.
The
South Korean public has become increasingly aware of its
own vulnerability after a series of reports on terrorist
surveillance of potential targets in South Korea.
National Assembly lawmaker Yoon Ho-jung of the dominant
Uri Party stated on October 4 that terrorist threats
against South Korean airlines had risen dramatically
from five in 2003 to 20 during the first nine months of
2004. Another Uri Party legislator, Choi Sung, asserted
that terrorist groups had targeted South Korea at least
eight times since 1994, including once as part of
convicted terrorist Ramzi Yousef's aborted 1995 "Project
Bojinka", which envisaged blowing up 11 airliners over
the Pacific Ocean. In July, South Korean media agencies
reported that an al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group
threatened to attack South Korean vessels if they
carried goods to the US forces in Iraq.
On
October 7, the Defense Ministry stated in a report
submitted to the National Assembly's defense committee
that South Korea had been targeted 67 times for terror
attacks in the first seven months of 2004. The report
also indicated that the country had implemented 199
intelligence alerts for possible terror attacks since
1999.
South Korea raised its alert status on
January 9 after a threat was mailed to its embassy in
Thailand. The letter from a group calling itself the
"Anti-Korean Interests Agency" threatened terrorist
attacks against Korean airlines, companies, and
organizations throughout Southeast Asia. The Ministry of
Government Administration and Home Affairs announced on
January 11 that a new anti-terrorist unit will be given
a $3.4 million budget and conduct anti-terrorism
training sessions and drills with the nation's military
and police units.
The National Intelligence
Service (NIS) revealed last December 15 that operatives
from an al-Qaeda-affiliated group had recently
infiltrated the country to conduct preliminary
preparations for attacks on US military installations
and South Korean airliners and airports, which had
resulted in an increased state of alert. The NIS
reported to the National Assembly's Committee on
Intelligence regarding other reported infiltrations and
concluded that al-Qaeda-affiliated infiltrations had
become more frequent. Representative Ham Seung-hee told
reporters at the time that the NIS assessment was that
al-Qaeda, its allies and their operations were moving
gradually from the Middle East and Southeast Asia to
increase their attention to Northeast Asia. The NIS
cited the possibility of terrorist attacks on US allies
such as South Korea and Japan, which also has non-combat
troops on a humanitarian mission in Iraq.
Impact on South Korean populace The
recent threats will not cause the Seoul government to
re-evaluate its continued military presence in Iraq -
currently the third-largest in the coalition after the
United States and the United Kingdom. However, a
terrorist attack on the South Korean homeland would
trigger a fervent public clamor for Seoul to distance
itself from the US global "war on terrorism". The
populace would also likely react to terrorist-related
incidents in Iraq, such as casualties to the Korean
troops or further kidnappings of South Korean citizens
similar to those that previously resulted in the murder
of two Korean contractors.
A terrorist attack on
South Korea would undermine public support for President
Roh Moo-hyun's endorsement of the "war on terror" and
revive resentment toward Washington for its perceived
role in forcing South Korea to deploy troops to Iraq,
thereby making the country vulnerable to terrorism.
Korea's controversial and oft-delayed decision to deploy
combat troops to Iraq had generated intense national
debate as well as resentment over perceived US
diplomatic pressure.
South Korea will pose a
difficult operating environment for Islamic terrorist
groups, given the ethnic homogeneity of the country, as
well as the strong domestic security capability honed by
decades of combating North Korean infiltration and
terrorist activity. Still, the continuing revelations of
al-Qaeda infiltrations into South Korea will raise the
specter that Islamic terrorist groups may be planning to
bring the "war on terror" to South Korean soil.
Bruce Klingner is director of analysis
for Intellibridge Corp in Washington, DC. His areas of
expertise are strategic national-security, political and
military affairs in China, Northeast Asia, Korea and
Japan. He can be reached atbklingner@intellibridge.com.
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