NK attack kills at least 2 soldiers injuring 13 others
The Korea Herald | 11/23/2010 19:17
North Korea on Tuesday fired a barrage of about 100 artillery shells onto a South Korean island near the tense west sea border, killing at least two South Korean marines and leaving over 13 others wounded, military officials said.
South Korea's military immediately returned fire and lobbed more than 80 shells toward North Korean artillery positions on the west coast, while deploying fighter jets to the island and placing all its troops on maximum alert, said the officials.
The North's artillery shells started falling on Yeonpyeong Island, about 80 kilometers northwest of the port of Incheon, and its surrounding waters at around 2:34 pm, said Col. Lee Bung-woo, spokesman for the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).
The clash came amid rising tensions on the peninsula following North Korea's claim that it is running a highly sophisticated uranium enrichment plant and building a light-water reactor.
According to government officials, at least four Yeonpyeong Island residents were injured by the North Korean attacks, while the island remained in a state of chaos, with its mountains and homes ablaze with fire.
Almost all of the island's 1,600-odd residents were evacuated to a shelter.
"I was at home when I was surprised by the sounds of bomb explosions. As I stepped out of my home, I saw the entire village had already turned into a sea of fire," said a 35-year-old resident who identified himself only as Kim.
"I'm now staying in a shelter along with other villagers, but I'm still shaking with fear."
A spokesman for Incheon Metropolitan City, the administrative district of Yeonpyeong Island, said four civilians were reportedly injured from the North's firing.
Blazes were spreading on a mountain on the island, some homes were still burning, and the island was in virtual blackout from a power outage, he said.
The JCS estimated that some 100 shells landed on Yeonpyeong Island, which lies about 3 kilometers south of the Yellow Sea border, until 4:42 pm
JCS officials said the South's military sent a telephone message as of 5:55 pm to North Korea to demand the shelling be stopped.
The North's firing, which came as the South's Navy was conducting a routine drill near the island, stopped around 4:42 pm, JCS officials said.
The South's military had launched the nine-day annual defense drill on Monday.
"The North's artillery provocation is clearly a violation of the Korean War armistice agreement," the JCS spokesman said.
JCS Chairman Han Min-koo and Gen.Walter Sharp, commander of some 28,500 US troops in the South, held telephone talks and agreed to consider declaring a "joint crisis management," the JCS spokesman said.
President Lee Myung-bak ordered a stern response to North Korea's artillery attack as well as measures to prevent the North's artillery fire from escalating into a conflict.
"Deal resolutely (with the attack) but make all-out efforts not to aggravate the situation," Lee was quoted as saying in an emergency meeting with his senior secretaries.
The presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said it was looking into the possibility that the North's firing was in protest to an ongoing South Korean military drill on the western coast.
The "Hoguk Exercise," one of South Korea's three major annual defense exercises, began Monday with some 70,000 troops participating.
The North sent a message to Seoul denouncing the exercise earlier in the day, Cheong Wa Dae said.
The JCS dismissed the connection, saying the North's artillery fell well south of Tuesday's drill location.
The western sea border was the scene of bloody gun battles between the navies of the two Koreas in 1999, 2002 and most recently in November of last year.
Tensions remain high on the peninsula this year after a North Korean torpedo sank the South Korean warship Cheonan in March, killing 46 sailors, near the Yellow Sea border.
The two Koreas are still technically at war because their 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.
(Yonhap News)
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