South Korean troops fired artillery and dropped sonar buoys into the Yellow Sea as naval drills were launched yesterday near the spot where a warship sank four months ago.
About 4,500 South Korean troops aboard more than 20 ships and submarines, as well as about 50 aircraft, were mobilized to take part in the five days of naval exercises off the west coast, including spots near the two Koreas’ maritime border, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
North Korea called the drills a military provocation that threatened to re-ignite war on the Korean Peninsula.
“If the puppet warmongers dare ignite a war, [North Korea] will mercilessly destroy the provokers and their stronghold by mobilizing most powerful war tactics and offensive means beyond imagination,” the ruling Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland said in a statement carried by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency.
Soldiers aboard the 14,000-tonne ROKS Dokdo, an amphibious landing ship, patrolled the deck as Lynx helicopters dropped sonars into the sea in search of enemy submarines. A 1,200-tonne frigate remained on standby, ready to torpedo the target.
The fleet dispatched for the exercises also include three 1,800-tonne submarines, a 4,500-tonne destroyer and about 50 fighter jets, South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff Commander Won Hyung-sik said in Seoul.
The drills come just weeks after South Korea's joint military exercises with the US off the east coast — maneuvers held in response to the deadly March sinking of the Cheonan warship, which killed 46 South Korean sailors.
A five-nation team of investigators concluded in May that a North Korean torpedo fired from a submarine sank the 1,200-tonne Cheonan as the warship was carrying out routine surveillance. North Korea has denied sinking the ship.
The waters off the west coast have been the site of several naval clashes between the two Koreas.
The North and South have engaged in three bloody battles near the line, most recently in November last year and the Cheonan went down in March not too far from the border.
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