News about the world: N Korea warns South on war games

Friday, November 26, 2010

N Korea warns South on war games

Fire near a South Korean artillery piece on Yeonpyeong island (23 November 2010)

South Korea's military is now aiming to be more 'flexible' in response to the North's threat

North Korea has warned that the impending joint military exercises by the South and the US are pushing the region to "the brink of war".

A group of naval ships, led by a nuclear-powered US aircraft carrier, is heading to the Yellow Sea to take part in the drill, due to begin on Sunday.

At least four people died on Tuesday when the North surprised Seoul by shelling a southern island.

The comments come as the South decides who to appoint as new defence minister.

The previous minister, Kim Tae-young, resigned after criticism that he was too slow to respond to the attack on the island of Yeonpyeong.

The barrage of shells, which killed four South Koreans, is one of the worst incidents between the two Koreas since the end of the Korean war in 1953, which concluded without a peace treaty.

"The situation on the Korean Peninsula is inching closer to the brink of war due to the reckless plan of those trigger-happy elements to stage again war exercises targeted against the [North]," the North's official KCNA news agency said.

Though organised well ahead of this week's attack, the four-day naval manoeuvres are a show of defensive strength which, as well as angering North Korea, have also unsettled China, its major ally.

Kim Tae-young (centre) inspects damage to Yeonpyeong island, before his resignation - 25 November.

Mr Kim quit after being criticised for his handling of an artillery attack by North Korea

North Korea has warned it will "wage second and even third rounds of attacks without any hesitation if warmongers in South Korea make reckless military provocations again".

In response to Tuesday's incident, South Korea has already increased troop numbers on Yeonpyeong island, and has said it is changing its rules of engagement to allow it to respond more forcefully to similar incidents.

The cabinet had decided that under the old rules of engagement there was too much emphasis on preventing a military incident escalating into something worse, the BBC's Chris Hogg, in Seoul, says.

In future, the South would implement different levels of response depending on whether the North attacked military or civilian targets, a presidential spokesman said.

President Lee Myung-bak accepted Mr Kim's resignation "to improve the atmosphere in the military and to handle the series of incidents," a presidential official said.

Earlier reports by local news agencies had suggested that Lee Hee-won, 61, had been named as new defence minister but Korean officials later said that no final decision had yet been made.

Mr Lee is a former four-star general who became deputy chief of the US-South Korea Joint Forces Command in 2005.

Whoever is appointed will now have the opportunity to overhaul the country's security apparatus, our correspondent says.

Pyongyang blames Seoul for this week's incident. The South was holding military exercises in the area at the time, and returned artillery fire following the North Korean shelling.

China, which has not apportioned blame, has urged both sides to show restraint.

This article is from the BBC News website. � British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.