South Korea deployed rocket launchers and extra artillery on a frontline border island bombarded last week by North Korea, as Seoul’s leader vowed yesterday to make Pyongyang pay for any fresh provocations.
Six days after the barrage that triggered fury in the South and alarm worldwide, the military on Yeonpyeong Island also announced plans for a live-fire drill.
Residents were warned to shelter in bunkers before the firing starts at 10am today.
PHOTO: REUTERS
A photographer saw many more soldiers on the island and multiple rocket launchers being installed. Military officials quoted by Yonhap news agency said the number of K-9 self-propelled howitzers there had been doubled to 12.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, under fire for the military’s perceived feeble response to last Tuesday’s attack, which killed two civilians and two marines, indicated Seoul would not make the same mistake twice.
“If the North commits any additional provocations against the South, we will make sure that it pays a dear price without fail,” the grim-faced leader said in a nationally televised address, calling the shelling “a crime against humanity.”
Lee made no mention of China’s call for talks to end the crisis, in what one analyst saw as a tacit dismissal of it. Instead, he highlighted Pyongyang’s past deadly attacks.
The South now realizes the North will not on its own abandon its nuclear program or brinkmanship policy, he said, adding that tolerance would “spawn nothing but more serious provocations.”
The US and South Korea staged the second day of their biggest-ever naval exercise, a show of strength against the regime that has tested nuclear bombs and is blamed for sinking a South Korean warship in March.
The sinking killed 46 sailors and sharply raised tensions, but the deadly artillery attack — which also wounded 18 people and set homes and hillsides ablaze — was the first on civilian areas in the South since the 1950-to-1953 Korean War.
Such a provocation was unpre-cedented, Lee said.
“A military attack against civilians is strictly prohibited even in time of war; it is a crime against humanity,” he said.
Lee said a school was holding classes only a few meters from where shells landed, adding: “I am outraged by the ruthlessness of the North Korean regime, which is even indifferent to the lives of little children.”
Far to the south of the disputed border, the US and South Korean fleets staged an intensive live-fire exercise involving multiple aircraft from the US carrier George Washington.
Eleven ships from the two navies plus aircraft and more than 7,000 personnel are taking part in the four-day drill which began on Sunday.
North Korea said the exercise brings the peninsula to the brink of war. The drill has also riled China, which sees the Yellow Sea as its backyard. However, China, the North’s sole major ally, has itself angered South Koreans by failing to join international condemnation of its neighbor.
Baek Seung-joo of South’s Korea Institute for Defense Analyses said Lee’s vow to make the North pay a price “expresses quite a strong determination that South Korea would strike back at a level previously unseen in case of a further provocation from the North.”
The Ministry of Foreign -Affairs (MOFA) yesterday raised its travel alert for South Korea as tensions rise between Pyongyang and Seoul.
The travel alert for Baekryeong Island, Daecheong Island, Sopcheong Island, Yeonpyeong Island and Woo Island, near the Northern Limit Line, was raised from gray — the lowest level of the four-tier travel advisory system — to red, the highest level, which advises people to refrain from visiting those destinations.
The ministry also raised its level to yellow for the rest of South Korea, advising tourists to travel with caution or reconsider visiting the area.
Additional reporting by Shih Hsiu-chuan
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