 A grim-faced President Lee Myung-bak, forefront, listens during a meeting with security-related Cabinet ministers and military commanders at the operations bureau of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Seoul, Tuesday. / Korea Times |
By Jung Sung-ki
North Korea’s artillery attack on Yeonpyeng Island Tuesday is the first of its kind since the Korean War.
The communist state has occasionally conducted provocative action near land and sea borders but it had never shelled South Korean territory to claim the lives of South Koreans.
Analysts say this is one of the most serious clashes since the Korean War ended without a peace treaty in 1953, further escalating cross-border tensions.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff said the North’s coastal artillery batteries aimed at South Korean Marine bases and civilian areas in an apparent move to kill soldiers and island residents.
The North fired shells from bases in Gaemeori and Mudo, 12 to 13 kilometers from Yeonpyeong.
The North Korean army is believed to have about eight 27-kilometer-range 130mm howitzers and eight 76 guns with a range of 12 kilometers.
By number, the North is said to have deployed about 1,000 artillery pieces on islands near the NLL. Most are known to be hidden in mountain caves and tunnels.
Yeonpyeong Island lies only about 12 kilometers from the North Korean mainland.
The South Korean military responded with the advanced K9 self-propelled howitzer. The K9 carries a 155mm/.52 caliber gun with a maximum firing range of 40 kilometers.
A JCS official said the number of North Korean casualties had not been confirmed but the damage to the North would be serious in consideration of K9’s much better capability.
“Our forces delivered concentrated fire at the North’s firing points, so we believe the North would have suffered substantial damage,” the official said.
In July, the North fired about 400 shots toward the NLL. The communist regime also launched 117 shells toward the disputed border and 10 of them landed on the southern side of the line.
The NLL, the sea boundary imposed by the United Nations Command at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, has been a flash point for conflict between South and North Korea. Pyongyang refuses to accept it as a border.
On June 29, 2002, two North Korean patrol boats crossed the NLL. As South Korean ships approached to deter the infiltration, the North Koreans abruptly opened fire in violation of the rules of engagement, provoking the South Korean Navy to return fire.
One of the North Korean ships was heavily damaged and 30 North Koreans are believed to have been killed or wounded. Additionally, six South Koreans, including Lt. Cmdr. Yoon Young-ha, were killed and 18 others injured, while a Chamsoori-class patrol boat sank while being towed back to shore.
In 1999, both navies had clashed near the island.
