South Korea plans new maneuver

South Korean warships (file photo)

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/155760.html


The South Korean military plans to hold new live-fire artillery drills in the Yellow Sea, a month after North Korea's deadly attack on the Yeonpyeong Island.

"The military decided to hold a one-day war game on Yeonpyeong Island between December 18 and 21," state-run Yonhap news agency quoted the spokesman for South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff, Col. Lee Bung-woo, as saying in Seoul on Thursday.

He added the drill would take place as soon as weather and other relevant conditions allow. It would be the first such maneuver on Yeonpyeong Island since North Korea's attack last month.

Some 20 US military personnel will provide medical, communications and intelligence support to South Korean troops in the military exercise.

Two South Korean marines and two construction workers were killed on November 23 after North Korea fired dozens of artillery shells onto the small island of Yeonpyeong.

The attack set more than 60 houses ablaze and sent civilians fleeing in terror.

On March 2, the 1,200-ton South Korean Cheonan warship sank near the inter-Korea maritime border. The tragic incident led to the deaths of 46 South Korean sailors.

Seoul accuses Pyongyang of involvement in the sinking of its warship. Pyongyang however says aluminum alloy fragments recovered by South Korea prove that no North Korean torpedo was involved in the incident.

Meanwhile, South Korean military has strengthened its force on five islands close to North Korea to prevent the situation from escalating in the event of an armed clash.

Seoul has stated that it will engage in active diplomacy with the United States, China and countries surrounding the Korean Peninsula to seek punitive action against Pyongyang for the deadly artillery attack on the Yeonpyeong Island.

Seoul is still technically at war with Pyongyang since Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty, with neither side able to claim outright victory.

Almost half a million South Koreans died as a result of the 1950-1953 conflict. North Korea suffered 290,000 casualties in the conflict, according to data from official Chinese sources.

In the three years of fighting, 1,263 of the Commonwealth forces were killed and a further 4,817 were wounded, while the US lost 33,000 men.

A total of 339 Australian troops were killed and 1216 wounded in the war.