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| President Park Geun-hye receives a briefing on North Korea shelling the South during a meeting of the National Security Council at Cheong Wa Dae, Thursday. / Yonhap |
By Kang Seung-woo
President Park Geun-hye Thursday ordered the military to maintain a strong defense posture against North Korea after South and North Korea exchanged fire in the western border, Cheong Wa Dae said.
"President Park presided over a National Security Council (NSC) meeting at 6 p.m. and was debriefed about the North's fire from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, defense minister and the head of the National Security Office," presidential spokesman Min Kyung-wook said in a briefing.
It was the first time for Park to preside over a NSC meeting.
Initially, National Security Office chief Kim Kwan-jin planned to preside over the NSC meeting, but considering the seriousness of the issue, Park chaired it in an underground bunker at Cheong Wa Dae.
"She also said during the 40-minute meeting that the government needs to ensure the safety of those who reside near the border area," Min added.
According to the spokesman, Park received the first report about the provocation at 5 p.m. and immediately ordered to convene the NSC meeting.
Earlier in the day, the South Korean military's radar system detected North Korea firing a shell toward Yeoncheon, Gyeonggi Province and the North also fired several more shells at the southern side of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) to protest against the South broadcasting propaganda messages, according to the defense ministry. In response, the South Korean military countered by firing a few dozen shells.
Will North attack again?
North Korea sent a letter, written under the name of Kim Yang-gon, the highest-ranking North Korean official handling inter-Korean affairs, to the National Security Office chief through the liaison channel at the truce village of Panmunjeom. In the letter, the North called for an end to the anti-Pyongyang broadcasts that began earlier this month in retaliation for the North's landmine attack in the DMZ that seriously injured two South Korean soldiers.
"North Korea demanded South Korea takes practical steps to end the campaign and threatened to take military action," the ministry said in a statement.
The North also added that it intends to open a channel for the improvement of the inter-Korean ties.
However, the ministry accused the North of glossing over the cause of the problem.
"The government will deal sternly with the North's provocations on the principle that the South does not condone the North's wrongdoings," the ministry said.
Along with the Kim's letter, the North Korean military also sent a separate notice through a cross-border telephone channel to the defense ministry, threatening to take military action unless the South halts the loudspeaker campaign at the border.
"If the South does not stop its anti-North psychological broadcasts and remove all the facilities within 48 hours from 5 p.m., the North said that it will begin military action," the defense ministry said.
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