A destroyer prowled the sea and fighter jets screamed across the skies yesterday as South Korea braced for possible North Korean surprise attacks a day after launching provocative artillery drills on an island the North shelled last month.
North Korea has so far backed off from threats to strike the South again for the live-fire military drills on Yeonpyeong Island.
Pyongyang considers the waters around the island its territory, and similar drills last month triggered a North Korean artillery barrage that killed four South Koreans, including two construction workers.
Top officials defended Seoul’s decision to carry out more drills despite calls in some quarters for restraint amid fears of all-out war, and said the South’s military was prepared for any future North Korean aggression.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, in the wake of intense criticism over his handling of last month’s attack, gathered his national security advisers for strategic talks yesterday. Accused of acting too slowly and too weakly last month, his government has threatened air strikes if hit again and ordered more troops on front-line islands.
Seoul’s decision to push ahead with the routine drills in the face of North Korean threats of nuclear war and pressure from China and Russia indicate a new willingness by Lee’s government to use provocations of its own to counter North Korean aggression. Seoul has already cut aid to the impoverished North and refused to participate in money making joint tourism projects in North Korea.
“When it provokes, we will firmly punish North Korea,” South Korean Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin told lawmakers before leaving for the security meeting.
Kim acknowledged facing pressure to cancel the drills, but added that our leaders “relieved our people’s anxiety about security and created a sense of unity with firm and consistent military measures.”
A senior South Korean government official said yesterday that the lack of response so far does not mean Pyongyang is backing down, noting that North Korea thrives on “surprise” attacks. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
Troops were also on alert at the border amid plans yesterday to light up a 30m tall steel Christmas tree that would be visible to North Koreans living near the Demilitarized Zone dividing the two Koreas.
South Korea had stopped the longtime practice of lighting the huge Christmas tree years ago when it halted routine propaganda campaigns during a period of warming ties.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion