On November 25, 2010 BBC Interviewed Duyeon Kim, Deputy Director of Nuclear Non-Proliferation at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferaiton, about North Korea’s attack on South Korea’s Yeonpyeong Island that killed two marines and two civilians, injuring 18 others.
Below are key quotes by Duyeon Kim:
- “What’s important is the road foreward. It’s inevitable that South Korea would want to take a tougher stance, would want to revise the rules of engagement…[But] We need to be careful of and avoid unintented consequences – unintentionally getting ourselves in a situation where it may lead to more confrontation, unintentionally triggering the worst-case scenario.”
- “At the UN [Security Council], China’s role will be very important, that’s where the big question mark is. In this [Yeonpyeong] situation, unlike during the Cheonan [ship] attack, China will not be able to protect North Korea this time [at the Security Council] because North Korea has taken responsibilty for this [Yeonpyeong] attack.”
- “It [Yeonpyeong attack] makes it very difficult to try and engage North Korea in nuclear negotiations because it directly hit South Korean territory and it killed lives and injured many more. There’s a possibility that North Korea may try to use the West Sea to try and create a zone of conflict to elicit negotiations wit the US for a peace treaty. It [North Korea] ultimately wants a peace treaty to change the armistice and hopefully withdraw US troops from the peninsula.”
