Naval heroes defended NLL through bloodshed, death in 2002

“First class petty officers Cho Cheong-hyeong and Hwang Do-hyeon were found dead tightly holding the trigger of a machine gun with hands and embracing the gun in the chest...”

Seamen who fought a hellish naval battle with North Korean soldiers the previous day could hardly continue speaking at a press conference at the Navy`s 2nd Fleet Command in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province on June 30, 2002. Sound of sobbing, or a mixture of sadness and anger, was also heard at the scene. The naval servicemen made graphic testimonies on how ruthless the North’s provocations were and what sacrifice they made to defend the Northern Limit Line, the de facto inter-Korean border, in the Yellow Sea.

A North Korean patrol boat launched surprise artillery attacks at the pilothouse of South Korean patrol boat No. 357, thus preventing the boat from moving, chased, and relentlessly shelled the latter. Wretchedly destroyed in the face of bombardment of hundreds of shots from the enemy forces, the boat turned into a hellish state amid bodies of fallen soldiers entangled with the injured inside of the boat. Loud banning sound, screaming, and moaning arose from various corners of the boat. The floor of the hull was flooded with blood from the victims.

On the boat’s navigating platform, covered with flames and dark smoke, Corporal Park Dong-hyeok, a medic, attempted to give cardiopulmonary resuscitation or CPR on Captain Yoon Yeong-ha, the commander of the speedboat. But the body of Yoon, who died immediately after being hit by debris of enemy fire, was already cold. Lying right by Yoon’s body, Lieutenant Lee Hee-wan, vice commander of the boat, was commanding crewmen. He had the bone of his left leg shattered after being hit by shell debris, and flesh of his right leg ruptured due to penetration of shrapnel. While giving treatment to the injured under a rain of shells, Corporal Park also suffered more than 100 cuts on his entire body, including the back and belly due to shrapnel, until collapsing.

Soldiers of the patrol boat No. 357 furiously returned fire, despite having their fingers cut off and their entire body parts ruptured due to enemy shells. Four seamen, including Yoon, died in the battle, petty officer first class Han Sang-gook went missing, and 19 others suffered injuries. Afterwards, Corporal Park died on the 83rd day after the battle, and Han’s body was discovered, raising the death toll to six. The day Park’s heart stopped beating, the military medical officer who treated him, wrote in his diary, “All of us have our heart punctured.” The six soldiers in the line of fire were granted special one-level promotion of their ranks each and orders of military merit. The Second Yeonpyeong Battle ended that way. The Northern Limit Line was defended because those young heroes sacrificed their own lives.

The liberal Kim Dae-jung administration, however, thoroughly bashed the navy heroes. President Kim, the commander-in-chief, failed to attend the joint funeral service that convened two days after the battle. Also absent were the prime minister, the defense minister and the chief of Joint Chiefs of Staff. Amid mounting Criticism against the government for neglecting the heroes who defended the Northern Limit Line, the government only turned a deaf ear. About one month later when the North sent a wire message, which reads, “We regret the accidental military skirmish,” the Seoul government did not raise any objections.

The Roh Moo-hyun administration was not much different from its predecessor. Memorial ceremonies took place every year from 2003 to 2007, but the president never showed up. Only the defense minister attended the third ceremony, and the prime minister the fifth event. Bereaved families and survivors of the battle shed tears of blood due to regret and anger, calling the Second Yeonpyeong Navel Battle a “forgotten combat.”

Why the Roh administration was so indifferent to the heroes who defended the Northern Limit Line? Minutes of the 2007 inter-Korean summit, which was recently publicized, presented answer to this question. When meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, Roh disparaged the line, labeling it “nuisance,” and “like a monster,” and saying “(if discussed), it makes lots of noise and gets controversial.” Saying that he shares understanding about the line with Kim, Roh also said the Northern Limit Line should be changed. Kim responded, saying, “What trace has the West Sea incident actually left,” adding, “What are the Northern Limit Line, like a line on waters and map, and the Military Demarcation Line?”

To these people, the Northern Limit Line was an obstacle to inter-Korean peace and reconciliation, and nuisance. The heroes who defended the line by sacrificing their lives was nothing to the eye of the commander-in-chief of the Republic of Korea, who was hallucinated by the North’s plot to nullify the line at the pretext of peace.

In his recent Twitter post, Rep. Moon Jae-in of the main opposition Democratic Party said, “Let’s finish the history of defending the Northern Limit Line by sacrificing bloodshed and lives. Let’s achieve peace that will no longer entail bloodshed and death.” However, he stopped short of mentioning Pyongyang’s responsibility for its aggression, which turned the Yellow Sea into waters of bloodshed and deaths.

Those who died in the line of fire at the Second Yeonpyeong Naval Battle were scapegoat of “false peace,” which the liberal governments acquired in return for providing lavish assistance to the North. We can no longer afford to see more victims of false peace. Without the North’s sincere apology and giving up of its bid to nullify the Northern Limit Line, I believe the history of the border, which has been written through bloodshed and deaths, cannot and should not be forgotten. This should be the core in our strife to end the tragic history of the Northern Limit Line and to achieve true peace. We pay the tribute of chrysanthemum to the six heroes who defended the Northern Limit Line with their bloodshed in the Yellow Sea 11 years ago.