North Korea fired more than 100
artillery shells onto a South Korean border island today, killing two southern
marines and wounding 18 others in a brazen attack that prompted the South to
return fire and put its military on its highest alert. South Korea’s president
said he would unleash “enormous retaliation” should the North strike
again.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
called it “one of the gravest incidents since the end of the Korean War.”
The United Nations Security Council plans to
hold an emergency meeting today or Wednesday to discuss the attack, a French
diplomat said.
Fires burned out of control on Yeonpyeong
Island, one of South Korea’s closest territories to the communist north, which
houses a South Korean military base alongside the homes of about 1,700
civilians. At least three civilians and 15 South Korean troops were among those
wounded, according to a defence official.
Home to a sleepy fishing village
famous more for a local crab delicacy than for politics or violence, Yeonpyeong
(pronounced yuhn-pyuhng) lies close to the Northern Limit Line, an invisible
disputed boundary between the Koreas. It’s the same area where a South Korean
naval vessel, the Cheonan, sank in March — an act blamed on North Korean
torpedoes, though Pyongyang denies that. Forty-six sailors died.
Today’s exchange of fire marks one
of the peninsula’s most serious clashes since the Korean War ended without a
peace treaty in 1953. Military skirmishes have broken out since then, but
rarely — if ever — has the fighting targeted civilians.
Both sides accused the other of
firing first.
“The South Korean enemy,
despite our repeated warnings, committed reckless military provocations of
firing artillery shells into our maritime territory near Yeonpyeong
Island,” the North’s military said. Adding, Pyongyang “will continue to make
merciless military attacks with no hesitation if the South Korean enemy dares
to invade our sea territory by 0.001mm.”
Seoul said that the North Korean
barrage began at 2:34 p.m. and that the Southern military returned fire more than
an hour later, JoongAng reported. F-16 fighter jets were dispatched to the
area, and the entire exchange of fire lasted more than two hours.
South Korean President Lee
Myung-bak called today’s attack a “clear military provocation” and
warned of “stern retaliation.”
“Recklessly shelling mere
civilians can never be tolerated, Hong Sang-pyo, senior secretary for public
affairs at the presidential office, told the newspaper. “North Korea will have
to bear full responsibility.”
Today’s clash also comes amid
heightened tension over the North’s disputed nuclear program. Last weekend, an
American scientist just back from Korea described touring a previously unknown
nuclear laboratory near Pyongyang — raising suspicions that the North may be
forging ahead with its nuclear activities more quickly than the West thought.
Obama dispatched his North Korea
envoy, Stephen Bosworth, who told reporters in Beijing today that Pyongyang
initiated today’s clashes.
The U.S. and China share the view that
“such conflict is very undesirable,” he said.
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