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South Korea plans bigger drills
Source: Agencies |
December 23, 2010, Thursday
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SOUTH Korea vowed yesterday to "completely punish" North Korea if it attacks again, and mobilized hundreds of troops, tanks and helicopters for a massive military exercise prompted by high tensions on the peninsula.
The firing drills planned for today near the Koreas' heavily armed land border signaled that South Korea is willing to risk further escalating tensions with North Korea, which shelled a southern island off the western coast on November 23 and stirred up a war-like atmosphere.
The attack, which killed four people, was said by North Korea as a retaliation for South Korea's military exercises on Yeonpyeong Island that day.
South Korea has conducted 47 similar military drills this year, and it scheduled one more exercise for today in response to the North Korean attack, said an army officer.
Today's drill will be the biggest-ever wintertime joint firing exercise that South Korea's army and air force have staged, an army statement said.
"We will completely punish the enemy if it provokes us again like the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island," said Brigadier General Ju Eun-sik, chief of the army's 1st armored brigade.
South Korean forces are on high alert even though North Korea backed down from its threat to again retaliate over a separate firing drill South Korea held on Monday on Yeonpyeong in disputed western waters.
South Korea's navy also began annual four-day firing and anti-submarine exercises yesterday off the country's eastern coast.
Today's air force and army drills will involve 800 troops, F-15K and KF-16 jet fighters, K-1 tanks, AH-1S attack helicopters and K-9 self-propelled guns.
They will take place in Pocheon, about 45 kilometers north of Seoul and about 33 kilometers south of the North Korean border.
Seoul has relocated more artillery on Yeonpyeong Island following last month's shelling and plans to deploy Israeli-made Spike missiles there soon, Yonhap news agency reported, citing an unidentified military official.
The firing drills planned for today near the Koreas' heavily armed land border signaled that South Korea is willing to risk further escalating tensions with North Korea, which shelled a southern island off the western coast on November 23 and stirred up a war-like atmosphere.
The attack, which killed four people, was said by North Korea as a retaliation for South Korea's military exercises on Yeonpyeong Island that day.
South Korea has conducted 47 similar military drills this year, and it scheduled one more exercise for today in response to the North Korean attack, said an army officer.
Today's drill will be the biggest-ever wintertime joint firing exercise that South Korea's army and air force have staged, an army statement said.
"We will completely punish the enemy if it provokes us again like the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island," said Brigadier General Ju Eun-sik, chief of the army's 1st armored brigade.
South Korean forces are on high alert even though North Korea backed down from its threat to again retaliate over a separate firing drill South Korea held on Monday on Yeonpyeong in disputed western waters.
South Korea's navy also began annual four-day firing and anti-submarine exercises yesterday off the country's eastern coast.
Today's air force and army drills will involve 800 troops, F-15K and KF-16 jet fighters, K-1 tanks, AH-1S attack helicopters and K-9 self-propelled guns.
They will take place in Pocheon, about 45 kilometers north of Seoul and about 33 kilometers south of the North Korean border.
Seoul has relocated more artillery on Yeonpyeong Island following last month's shelling and plans to deploy Israeli-made Spike missiles there soon, Yonhap news agency reported, citing an unidentified military official.
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