A US aircraft carrier group set off for Korean waters yesterday, a day after North Korea rained artillery shells on a South Korean island.
South Korea said the bodies of two civilians were found on the island after Tuesday’s attack, which is likely to stir up more resentment in the country against its neighbor.
The nuclear-powered USS George Washington, which carries 75 warplanes and has a crew of more than 6,000, left a naval base south of Tokyo and would join exercises with South Korea from Sunday to Wednesday, US officials in Seoul said.
“This exercise is defensive in nature,” US Forces Korea said in a statement. “While planned well before yesterday’s unprovoked artillery attack, it demonstrates the strength of the ROK [South Korea]-US alliance and our commitment to regional stability through deterrence.”
North Korea said the South was driving the peninsula to the “brink of war” with “reckless military provocation” and by postponing humanitarian aid, the North’s official KCNA news agency said.
The government in Seoul came under pressure for its military’s slow response to the provocation, echoing similar complaints made when a warship was sunk in March in the same area, killing 46 sailors.
South Korean Defense Minister Kim Tae-young was grilled by lawmakers who said the government should have taken quicker and stronger retaliatory measures against the North’s provocation.
“I am sorry that the government has not carried out ruthless bombing through jet fighters during the North’s second round of shelling,” said Kim Jang-soo, a lawmaker of ruling Grand National Party and a former defense minister.
Tuesday’s attack marked the first civilian deaths in an assault since the bombing of a South Korean airliner in 1987.
The US and Japan urged China to do more to rein in North Korea.
Beijing will not be pleased by the deployment of the aircraft carrier and will not respond to such pressure, said Xu Guangyu (徐光宇), a retired major-general in the People’s Liberation Army.
“China will not welcome the US aircraft carrier joining the exercises, because that kind of move can escalate tensions and not relieve them,” he said.
“Our biggest objective is stability on the Korean Peninsula. That interest is not served by abandoning North Korea, and so there’s no need to rethink the basics of the relationship,” Xu said.
Beijing has previously said that an earlier plan to send the USS George Washington to US-South Korea joint exercises threatened long-term damage to Sino-US relations.
Editorials in South Korean newspapers stepped up pressure on South Korean President Lee Myung-bak to respond more toughly than he has to past provocations by the North, and two small groups held anti-North Korea protests.
US President Barack Obama, said he was outraged and pressed the North to stop its provocative actions.
Although US officials said the joint exercise was scheduled before Tuesday’s attack, it was reminiscent of a crisis in 1996 when then US president Bill Clinton sent an aircraft carrier group through the Taiwan Strait after Beijing test-fired missiles into the channel between China and Taiwan.
“My house was burnt to the ground,” said Cho Soon-ae, 47, who was among 170 or so evacuated from Yeonpyeong yesterday.
“We’ve lost everything. I don’t even have extra underwear,” she said weeping, holding on to her daughter, as she landed at Incheon.
China has long propped up the Pyongyang leadership, worried that a collapse of the North could bring instability to its own borders and also wary of a unified Korea that would be dominated by the US, the key ally of the South.
Beijing said it had agreed with the US to try to restart talks among regional powers over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
A number of analysts suspect that Tuesday’s attack may have been an attempt by North Korean leader Kim jong-il to raise his bargaining position ahead of disarmament talks, which he has used in the past to win concessions and aid from the outside world.
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