North Korea fired some 100 artillery rounds toward South Korean waters
and an island near the tense West Sea on Tuesday, killing two marines
and leaving at least 15 others wounded, five of them critically, South
Korea’s military reported.
The artillery shells from North Korea’s artillery troops at the west
coast stronghold near the border fell at 2:34 p.m. in South Korea’s
waters off the island of Yeonpyeong, some of them landing directly on
the island, said Col. Lee Bung-woo, spokesman of South Korea’s Joint
Chiefs of Staff (JCS). South Korea’s military responded by firing 80
rounds of K-9 artillery and deployed F-15K fighter jets to the island,
while putting the military on its highest peacetime alert. JCS officials
said South Korea’s military sent a telephone message to North Korea
urging them to stop the shelling. This marked the first artillery battle
exchanging firing since 1970.
JCS Chairman Han Min-koo and Gen. Walter Sharp, commander of some 28,500
U.S. troops in the South, held telephone talks and agreed to consider
declaring a "joint crisis management,” the JCS spokesman said.
According to the Cheong Wa Dae (the presidential office in South Korea
or Blue House), President Lee Myung-bak told his aides to respond
strictly to the attack but carefully manage the situation to prevent the
escalation of the clash before presiding over an emergency meeting of
security-related ministers at an underground bunker of the presidential
office.
North Korea fired the artillery during South Korea’s military drill
called the Hoguk Exercise on Nov. 22-30 that involves 70,000 South
Korean military troops, 50 warships, 90 helicopters and 500 planes. The
31st Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) of U.S. Marine Corps and U.S.
Seventh Air Force will also participate in the exercise.
North Korea has condemned the annual exercise and warned they would fire
shots, while South Korea has called it an exercise to enhance its
military command capabilities. Observers said North Korea has strongly
opposed to this exercise, an upgraded version of Team Spirit, saying
that the large scale joint military exercise, including warships, air
force and landing training, is aimed at attack on North Korea.
North Korea’s top military command threatened to continue "merciless”
strikes on South Korea in a statement by the state-run Korean Central
News Agency, while accusing South Korea’s military of initiating the
exchange by shooting toward its side.
Two marines were killed and five soldiers were seriously wounded, while
ten soldiers and civilians were reportedly wounded by the attack.
Yeonpyeong Island was engulfed in thick smoke when fire spread on a
mountain and homes and forest were ablaze in fire. Some 1,600 residents
at Yeonpyeong Island were all evacuated to shelters and suffered a
blackout from the power outage.
The western sea near the border has been the scene of bloody gun battles
between the navies of North Korea and South Korea that took place in
1999, 2002 and in November of last year.
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