Military drills cloud Korean Peninsula

With the crisis in the Middle East showing signs of abating, what has happened this month on the Korean Peninsula has dimmed hopes that a similar easing of tensions or reconciliation would also emerge in the region.

Nuclear-powered supercarrier USS George Washington arrives at a port of South Korean navy in Busan, about 420 km (261 miles) southeast of Seoul, Oct 4, 2013. The US Navy aircraft carrier arrived in South Korea for a trilateral naval exercise with Japan from October 8-10, Yonhap reported. [Photo / Agencies]

The Syria chemical weapons issue is being resolved in accordance with a UN Security Council resolution. The Geneva II round of peace talks on Syria is scheduled to be held on Nov 23 and 24. Meanwhile, global powers just concluded a new round of negotiations with Iran last week in Geneva and issued, for the first time, a joint statement which may herald greater opportunities for a political resolution to the decades-old Iranian nuclear standoff.

But on the Korean Peninsula, the atmosphere is totally different. We have seen evidence this month that the US and its allies in the region are mounting military pressure on Pyongyang, which runs the risk of reversing the recent easing of tensions on the peninsula.

Since the beginning of October, the US has staged joint military exercises with the Republic of Korea and a separate joint maritime drill with the ROK and Japan. This involved a US aircraft carrier in waters off the peninsula. In response to the war games on its doorstep, Pyongyang announced that it placed all military forces on full alert.

On Oct 2, defense chiefs in Washington and Seoul signed the so-called Tailored Deterrence Strategy that will allow the allies to launch preemptive strikes against Pyongyang's nuclear capabilities.