【英语国际】李明博提高指责朝鲜声调 称不会发动战争

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak over the weekend sharpened his criticism of North Korea for the alleged sinking of one the South's warships, but acknowledged his country can't go to war over it.

Mr. Lee's statements to different audiences during a Singapore stay made plain the difficulty of balancing the desire to penalize North Korea with the worries that many South Koreans feel -- and some expressed in an election of local officeholders last week -- about what North Korea will do if antagonized.

During his visit, Mr. Lee didn't acknowledge the losses his political party took in the local elections, which some analysts attribute to voters being upset by him reacting too strongly against North Korea. And that apparent setback didn't stop his government from formally complaining to the United Nations Security Council about North Korea on Friday.

On Sunday, Pyongyang called Seoul's request for the U.N. to punish it 'yet another intolerable provocation,' the Associated Press reported. The North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification said Pyongyang will launch 'stern punishment' if the South doesn't stop anti-North steps.

In Singapore, Mr. Lee pushed forward with a public-relations campaign to persuade other nations to stop North Korea's ability to act violently with relative impunity, while also assuring them that South Korea doesn't want a war.

In an address Friday night to the Asia security summit called the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue, Mr. Lee reminded the audience of military leaders that North Korea has a long history of bad behavior -- including killing South Korean civilians and building nuclear weapons -- for which it has received few penalties.

'We must not just forget something like this happened,' Mr. Lee said. 'We must not repeat the behavior that we took whenever North Korea engaged in such actions in the past.'

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates took up the message at the same conference. 'The question people have to contemplate is, what are the consequences for a North Korea of an unprovoked attack on a neighbor? For nothing to happen would be a very bad precedent here in Asia,' he said.

But on Saturday, Mr. Lee made plain the constraints on South Korea in a meeting with Singapore business leaders, saying the country won't have an 'all-out war' with the North.

Even so, South Korea is trying to go further than last year, when, after Pyongyang tested a nuclear weapon for a second time, Mr. Lee and other political leaders spoke about ending the North's extortion cycle, in which it would take a provocative step, then call for diplomatic meetings and request a financial reward not to do something bad again.

Evan Ramstad

在刚刚过去的周末，韩国总统李明博(Lee Myung-bak)在天安号沉没问题上强化了对朝鲜的指责，但承认韩国不能因此而发动战争。

李明博在新加坡停留期间针对不同听众发表声明。很多韩国人担忧朝鲜被激怒后会采取的行动，在上周的一场地方首长选举中，一些人已经表达了这种担忧。但李明博的声明清楚地表明，在惩罚朝鲜的欲望和这种担忧之间需要取得平衡。

一些分析人士认为，李明博对朝鲜的反应过于强硬，让选民感到不安，所以地方选举中李明博所在政党承受了损失。李明博访问新加坡期间未承认他领导的政党遭遇了选举失利。而且，这也没有阻挡他的政府在上周五向联合国安全理事会对朝鲜提起正式申诉。

美联社(Associated Press)报道，平壤方面在周日说，首尔请求联合国惩罚它是“又一次不可容忍的挑衅”。朝鲜祖国和平统一委员会说，如果韩国不停止采取反朝措施，平壤方面将施以“严厉的惩罚”。

在新加坡，李明博开展了一场公关行动，劝说他国不要再让朝鲜在采取暴力行动后能够不受相应惩罚，同时向各国保证，韩国不希望爆发战争。

上周五晚间，李明博在名为“IISS香格里拉对话”(IISS Shangri-La Dialogue)的亚洲安全峰会上发表演讲，提醒听众席上的军事领导人说，朝鲜长期以来行为不端，比如杀害韩国平民、制造核武器，但却很少受到惩罚。

李明博说，我们不能忘记这类事情，我们不能重复过去每逢朝鲜参与此类行动时我们所采取的行为。

美国国防部长盖茨(Robert Gates)出席同一个论坛时接过话头说，人们一定要考虑的问题是，如果朝鲜无故对邻国发起攻击，应该有什么样的后果？如果什么也不发生，那将成为亚洲一个非常糟糕的先例。

但李明博周六会见新加坡商界领袖时，也讲明了韩国面临的约束。他说，韩国不会对朝鲜发动一场“全力以赴的战争”。

即便如此，韩国还是在努力比去年朝鲜第二次试爆核武器后走得更远。当时李明博和其他政界领导人都谈到要阻断朝鲜的勒索循环，也就是先采取挑衅措施，然后呼吁进行外交谈判，并要求获得财务回报，以此作为不再做坏事的条件。

Evan Ramstad