flareneld's oven: South Korea to bolster island force

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

South Korea to bolster island force


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South Korea to bolster island force against Pyongyang

South Korean marine troops head to a border island South Korea's military force on the border islands will be strengthened and its weapons upgraded

South Korea is to strengthen its military force on five islands close to North Korea, amid tensions over a clash that left four people dead.

It will also review military policy on the use of force, amid concerns it had become "rather passive".
North Korean shelling of a South Korean island on Tuesday killed two civilians and two marines, and prompted an increase in regional tension.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has urged both to exercise "utmost restraint".
North Korea, meanwhile, has threatened further military action if South Korea continues on what it called a "path of military provocation", the North's official KCNA news agency reported.
Pyongyang also blamed the new level of hostilities on the United States - saying the US helped draw up the "illegal" western maritime border between the two Koreas.
Troop increase
The clash two days ago was one of the worst incidents between the two Koreas, who remain technically at war following the 1950-53 Korean War.
The shelling set alight numerous houses on a South Korean island very close to the disputed western maritime border, killed four people and injured several more.
After holding an emergency cabinet meeting, South Korea announced it would dramatically increase its military capability in the area.
"[The government] has decided to sharply increase military force, including ground troops, on the five islands in the Yellow Sea and allocate more of its budget towards dealing with North Korea's asymmetrical threats," the presidential senior public affairs secretary, Hong Sang-pyo, told reporters.
He said the government had also decided to make new rules of engagement "to change the paradigm itself of responding to North Korea's provocation", describing the current rules as "rather passive".
The BBC's Chris Hogg says the cabinet had decided that in the existing rules of engagement there was too much emphasis on preventing a military incident escalating into something worse.
There is now an awareness that this thinking had to change, our correspondent says.
In future the South would implement different levels of response depending on whether the North Koreans attacked the military in the South or civilian targets, the spokesman said.
China role
In the Chinese leadership's first statement on the issue, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, speaking in Moscow, described the situation on the peninsula as "grim and complicated".
"China is firmly committed to maintaining the peace and stability of the Korean peninsula and opposes any provocative military acts," he said.
"Relevant sides should maintain the utmost restraint and the global community should do more to relax the tense situation," he said, in a statement issued by the Chinese foreign ministry.
China has been under pressure to use its influence over the North to ease tensions.
Mr Wen repeated his view that six-nation talks on the North's nuclear programme should be resumed as soon as possible, a position shared by North Korea.
South Korea, the US and Japan have said the six-nation talks should not re-start until the North stops uranium enrichment work and apologises for its alleged torpedoing of a South Korean warship in March, at the cost of 46 lives.
A planned visit by Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi to South Korea has also been postponed, it emerged on Thursday. The delay was put down to "scheduling" issues.

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