Two Koreas go tit

By Kang Seung-woo

South and North Korea have been going tit-for-tat as the South is scheduled to inaugurate its new president, Tuesday.

Kim Sung-han, the incoming Yoon administration's nominee for Korea's national security adviser / Yonhap

In response to Pyongyang's submarine-launched ballistic missile, Saturday, Kim Sung-han, President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol's pick for national security adviser, said that the incoming administration will bolster measures to handle its provocations effectively.

"The new administration will reassess the overall threat of North Korea's nuclear missiles at the same time that it takes office and combine the government's capabilities at an early date to come up with fundamental measures against North Korea's provocations and actual deterrence capabilities against its nuclear missile threats," Kim said in a media statement following the missile launch, the first of its kind since last October.

Kim's reference to "fundamental measures" may indicate the deployment of the homegrown "three-axis" defense system against North Korea's growing threats.

The three axes refer to: the Korea Massive Punishment and Retaliation (KMPR), an operational plan to incapacitate the North Korean leadership in a major conflict, the Kill Chain pre-emptive strike platform and the Korea Air and Missile Defense system (KAMD). Yoon's transition team unveiled it plans to complete the existing three-axis system, May 3.

North Korea's propaganda media outlet, Meari, belittled South Korea's defense plan as "useless" in dealing with its "mighty force and absolute power."

"Such things as the introduction of foreign high-tech weapons, the development of arms on its own or the establishment of a South Korean-style three-axis system are nothing but useless things in the face of our mighty force and absolute power," it said.

Many diplomatic observers predict that inter-Korean confrontations will intensify under the Yoon administration, which is set to take a hardline against the Kim Jong-un regime.