S. Korean military begins live-fire artillery drill near N. Korea

SEOUL, Dec. 20 (Yonhap) — South Korea on Monday fired artillery into waters near the western sea border with North Korea, an official said, amid Pyongyang’s threat to strike back if the drill goes ahead.

The drill began at around 2:30 p.m. from Yeonpyeong Island, with artillery rounds landing in a 40 kilometer-by-20 kilometer area south of the maritime border, an official at the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

F-15K fighter jets have scrambled and are on standby over the Yellow Sea, and about 10 naval ships, including an Aegis-equipped destroyer, have been deployed to the waters off the west coast, officials said.

“It won’t last long,” he said on condition of anonymity without providing details, such as how many artillery rounds were fired and whether North Korea shot back as it has warned.

North Korea used a similar firing exercise from the same island last month to justify launching a deadly artillery attack that killed four people, including two civilians, on the fishing village. It was the first time the North has shelled a civilian area since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

In the run-up to Monday’s drill, Pyongyang has warned that it will respond to the South’s artillery drill on Yeonpyeong Island with “unpredictable self-defensive blows,” sparking fears of a recurrence of last month’s deadly shelling.

Earlier in the day, officials said that the North’s military appeared to be making preparations for a counterattack, removing covers from coastal artillery guns and forward-deploying some artillery batteries, a military source said. Ahead of last month’s attack, the North had forward-deployed four artillery batteries and uncovered 14 coastal artillery guns.

“Our military would look into all possible countermeasures should North Korea provoke,” Seoul’s Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin said.

About 280 residents, reporters and government officials staying on the island have taken refuge at anti-air raid shelters on the island. officials said.

“This exercise is a routine and legitimate one that we have regularly held from a long time ago to defend the northwestern islands,” a JCS official said on condition of anonymity. “Representatives from the Armistice Commission and the United Nations Command plan to watch the drill.”

The exercise is designed to have artillery shells land in waters more than 10 kilometers from the maritime border, a military official said, stressing that the maneuvers are not meant to provoke North Korea. Vulcan guns and 105-millimeter light howitzers would be mobilized for the drill, officials said.

North Korea has deployed fake artillery guns on its west coast in a move seen as aimed at confusing targets in a possible clash, a government source said. The fake guns were shaped like 120- and 140-millimeter artillery guns, the source said.

China and Russia have urged both Koreas to exercise restraint, expressing concern that the drill could escalate into a bigger conflict. China has summoned the ambassadors from the two Koreas in Beijing to express such concern while Russia issued a statement urging Seoul to call off the exercise plans.

The U.S. has backed South Korea, saying the Asian ally has the right to hold such an exercise.

In New York, the U.N. Security Council convened an emergency meeting Sunday to discuss the tensions. A Russian-proposed draft statement urged all parties concerned to “exercise maximum restraint” and called on U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to send an envoy to Seoul and Pyongyang for a “resumption of dialogue and resolution of all problems dividing them exclusively through peaceful diplomatic means.”

The session lasted more than eight hours, but no statement was issued as China, a veto-holding permanent member of the Council, refused to condemn the North’s artillery attack last month. All Council members except China are in favor of including a phrase in a statement condemning the North, a U.N. official said.

China is considered having the biggest influence over Pyongyang as the country’s main provider of food and energy aid as well as diplomatic support. But Beijing has been unwilling to use the leverage over concerns that instability in the North could hurt its political and economic interests.

The U.N. ambassadors from the two Koreas made their cases at the Council meeting.

Seoul’s Ambassador Park In-kook stressed that South Korea has the right to the exercise in its own territorial waters in the context of self-defense, while the North’s envoy, Sin Son-ho, claimed that the drill is a provocation and the country will be forced to give a military response.

The two Koreas are still technically at war after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. About 28,500 American troops are stationed in South Korea to deter threats from North Korea.

The Yellow Sea border has been the constant source of military tension between the two sides as North Korea refuses to recognize the boundary drawn by the U.N. at the end of the Korean War. Pyongyang claims the line should be redrawn further south, but the South has rejected the demand, saying the North should first respect the boundary.

Residents on South Korea’s Yeonpyeong Island enter a refuge shelter ahead of a live-fire exercise from the island on Dec. 20 (Yonhap)

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

One Reply to “S. Korean military begins live-fire artillery drill near N. Korea”

  1. North Korea will start the war when China is ready to move on Taiwan, and given the way inflation, bad debt and a housing bubble are devastating the Chinese economy that may be soon.