Seoul exercise out to prove point
Source: Agencies |
May 28, 2010, Friday
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SOUTH Korean warships fired guns and dropped anti-submarine bombs in a large-scale military exercise yesterday, a week after Seoul accused North Korea of shooting a torpedo that sank a navy frigate in March.
The military pushed ahead with the show of force despite warnings from North Korea that the exercise would bring the peninsula to the brink of war.
North Korean reaction was swift. It declared it would scrap an accord with South Korea designed to prevent armed clashes at their maritime border and warned of "immediate physical strikes" if any South Korean ships entered its waters.
A multinational team of investigators announced on May 20 that a North Korean torpedo brought down the Cheonan, killing 46 sailors. South Korea announced a series of punitive measures, including slashing trade and resuming anti-Pyongyang propaganda over radio and loudspeakers aimed at North Korea.
North Korea has denied the attack and said it would abandon a 2004 accord that covered disputed western waters. Off the west coast, 10 warships, including a 3,500-ton destroyer, fired artillery and other guns and dropped anti-submarine bombs during a one-day exercise to boost readiness, the South Korean navy said.
South Korea is planning two major military drills with the United States by July in a display of force intended to deter future aggression by North Korea, said South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff.
General Walter Sharp, chief of the 28,500 American troops in South Korea, said the US, South Korea and other members of the United Nations Command "call on North Korea to cease all acts of provocation and to live up to the terms of past agreements, including the armistice agreement."
The US fought on the South Korean side during the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty. North Korea has long demanded a permanent peace agreement.
South Korean media reported yesterday that the US-South Korean combined forces command raised its surveillance level, called Watch Condition, up a level from 3 to 2. Level 1 is the highest.
The increased alert level means US spy satellites and U-2 spy planes will intensify their reconnaissance of North Korea, the JoongAng Ilbo newspaper said, citing an unidentified South Korean official.
In Moscow, the Kremlin said President Dmitry Medvedev had sent a group of experts to Seoul to study the findings of the investigation into the ship disaster.
The military pushed ahead with the show of force despite warnings from North Korea that the exercise would bring the peninsula to the brink of war.
North Korean reaction was swift. It declared it would scrap an accord with South Korea designed to prevent armed clashes at their maritime border and warned of "immediate physical strikes" if any South Korean ships entered its waters.
A multinational team of investigators announced on May 20 that a North Korean torpedo brought down the Cheonan, killing 46 sailors. South Korea announced a series of punitive measures, including slashing trade and resuming anti-Pyongyang propaganda over radio and loudspeakers aimed at North Korea.
North Korea has denied the attack and said it would abandon a 2004 accord that covered disputed western waters. Off the west coast, 10 warships, including a 3,500-ton destroyer, fired artillery and other guns and dropped anti-submarine bombs during a one-day exercise to boost readiness, the South Korean navy said.
South Korea is planning two major military drills with the United States by July in a display of force intended to deter future aggression by North Korea, said South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff.
General Walter Sharp, chief of the 28,500 American troops in South Korea, said the US, South Korea and other members of the United Nations Command "call on North Korea to cease all acts of provocation and to live up to the terms of past agreements, including the armistice agreement."
The US fought on the South Korean side during the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty. North Korea has long demanded a permanent peace agreement.
South Korean media reported yesterday that the US-South Korean combined forces command raised its surveillance level, called Watch Condition, up a level from 3 to 2. Level 1 is the highest.
The increased alert level means US spy satellites and U-2 spy planes will intensify their reconnaissance of North Korea, the JoongAng Ilbo newspaper said, citing an unidentified South Korean official.
In Moscow, the Kremlin said President Dmitry Medvedev had sent a group of experts to Seoul to study the findings of the investigation into the ship disaster.
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